


The Sacred and the Broken

by DarkJediQueen



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Derek is a Bad Mate, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mates, Romance, Scott is a Bad Friend, Shifter AU, magical!Stiles, stiles is kicked out of the pack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-22 08:41:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 21
Words: 109,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30036030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkJediQueen/pseuds/DarkJediQueen
Summary: Stiles thought from the moment that he saw Derek in the woods his sophomore year that his life was figured out. Only years later, the arrival of a new pack into his life changes everything and he's adrift for the first time ever. It's only his friendship with Adam that keeps him sane.
Relationships: Stiles Stilinski/Adam Calavera (OC), Stiles Stilinski/Derek Hale
Comments: 11
Kudos: 89
Collections: Rough Trade Collection





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> **Year** : Future  
>  **Spoilers** : Everything  
>  **Notes** : This is not endgame Stiles/Derek but Stiles/Adam.  
>  **Beta** : ScarsLikeVelvet

# Prologue

### January 2011

Stiles Stilinski picked up his feet a little more. He was near the end of his run, so he didn't pick up his feet unless he was thinking about it. He wanted to shift over into his fur and run, but there were too many people in the Preserve lately. He didn't want to be shot as a few were hunters. Both kinds. The ones that hunted game and then the kind that went after Shifters and other Supernatural beings that broke the laws of their kind. Stiles didn't really trust Hunters. He stumbled a little and caught himself on a tree. He grinned as he was able to run longer and longer lately. He thought about it, and his claws came out. More useful than fox claws really were, and he scaled the tree with ease. He couldn't hear anyone around him, and he enjoyed the chase of the squirrel up the tree since it had thought it was safe.

A squirrel wasn't his favorite game, so he let it go. He wasn't hungry anyway, and his father would kill him if he brought home another rabbit to skin and eat. It wouldn't be so bad except for the fact that Stiles didn't do well with blood in his human form. Which meant his father had to be the one to actually skin the animal and get it ready to cook.

Dropping down to his feet, Stiles was fully human again. He laughed as he scared off a few other animals that had been hiding in the bushes around. It was getting to the time of night where the nocturnal animals were coming out of their dens and burrows. He loved this time of night and how the world sounded. Stiles raised his arm to look at his phone, strapped to his upper arm. He changed his playlist from his steady one to his ending, one that was full of extremely heavy bass lines. He hit play and started to bob his head as the first started up. He could feel his heart starting to beat just a little bit faster as the music filled his brain.

Beacon Hills was a safe town, as safe as his father could make it with the help of the Beacon Hills police department. Stiles took off toward home, the long way. He half-ran, half-danced as he moved, his limbs flailing out as his body just couldn't not move. It looked stupid as hell, Stiles knew he had recorded himself once, but he loved to exercise like this.

A howl of a wolf cut Stiles off. He stopped but only paused his music. There hadn't been real wolves in California in a long time, and the ones that were being reintroduced hadn't made it this far yet. He waited to listen for it again. There was nothing. Werewolves weren't in the area either, not since Kate Argent had been caught killing the Hale family. Only a few members had survived that, and they had left. The oldest alive was Peter Hale, but he was still here, stuck in a coma from something that Kate had done to him when he had caught her. Then there was Laura, the Alpha now after the death of her mother. Laura's three siblings Derek, Cora, and Spencer. Then there was Peter's daughter Malia, roughly the same age as Cora. They had left for parts unknown after the fire had been settled. Leaving Peter behind.

Stiles visited Peter every Sunday and read to him for a few hours. The man was still in the coma, but being around other Shifters had allowed his burns to heal better. He wasn't scared at all anymore. No one understood why he was still in the coma. Stiles figured it was that he didn't know fully that he had family out there, that his daughter was still alive. Stiles could feel his small pack, just him and his father in it, even now. Scott was trying to build a pack of some kind, but Stiles was pretty sure that he didn't know what the hell he was doing as a Beta. Stiles was okay with not being in his pack. With his human father and him being a hidden Shifter, Stiles was just happy that no one looked at the weird magic-user who hung out with a lot of Shifters.

Beacon Hills had always been accepting of Shifters; the Hales had been the ones to found the city and even now owned most of the land in it. A firm kept tight control over everything for Laura. The Argents were the oddballs in the Hunters as it seemed that they were of the racist type and thought that all Shifters should die, even though they made up over a third of the population worldwide. Stiles figured that they had some deep dark secret that they were hiding, and it was why they did shit like that. It wasn't like the Shifter population was hidden, and it hadn't been for about three hundred years. It had come out when the King of England at the time had shifted in a gathering of the world powers at the time. It had spiraled out from there, and it was like a veil had been lifted.

Another howl and Stiles' body shivered of its own accord. That wasn't a normal wolf. Stiles lifted his arm and tapped to call his father.

"Stiles? Are you okay?"

"Dad, there's a Werewolf in the Preserve, and it just called for its pack."

"I'll get the guys out there. Be safe and don't do anything stupid. Call the station so that the on-duty person can give us what we need," Noah said before he hung up.

Stiles dialed the station and gave a rundown of what his father said before he turned down the phone volume to where he could barely hear what was being said. He followed the sound that he was pretty sure the howl had come from. Stiles was only sixteen, but he was the closest to where it was happening, and with his magic, he could do more to protect than anyone else until the Sheriff's department got there. Most of his magic was defensive, and he could trap a Shifter behind a line of Mountain Ash powder, but if it was a human attacking a Shifter, Stiles could block the human from getting to the Shifter with a spell. However, he wasn't the greatest at keeping it going for a long time.

"Look at you," a voice said.

Stiles slowed down to where he was barely making any noise. The wolf howled again, and Stiles was pretty sure that the wolf thought that he was whoever they were calling. Stiles cast his hearing out into the trees but heard nothing other than his own heartbeat and the two others that were the human and the wolf. He tried not to freak out when he saw that it was an older man, and he had a sword in his hands. The smell of wolfsbane filled Stiles' nose, making him want to sneeze.

The wolf was being held by wolfsbane-infused ropes by the looks of it. She was bleeding, and it looked like she had been running for a while, given the state of her hair and clothes.

"Hurry, there is a guy who has a sword, and I think he's going to kill her."

"Don't do a damned thing; you stay where you are on orders of your father," Tara said.

"Yeah, sure cause I can't do shit against a sword," Stiles said.

"Look at the Hales now, broken and scattered. I'll kill the one in the hospital next, then the rest of the beasts will come back," the man said.

Stiles looked at the woman and saw that it was Laura Hale. He whispered her name so that Tara could relay that message to his father. He itched to do something, but if they were going after a Hale, they were going to be protected against magic. It was well known that the Hales' youngest kid was a human who had magic. Stiles often wondered if he was a fox Shifter like Stiles, and they lied to protect him. Stiles had never got close enough to smell if he was or not. The whole family was protective of their only human.

"Do you think I'll hear them howl from where they are? I know you brought all of them back here. Broken little Derek who destroyed my daughter."

"She tried to hurt him," Laura said.

"Gerard Argent," Stiles said.

"They are five minutes from your location," Tara said after Stiles said the name.

"She doesn't have five minutes," Stiles said.

"Don't even move. He would gladly kill you."

Stiles wasn't sure what to do. Gerard stepped closer, and before Stiles could decide, he was swinging his arm. Stiles closed his eyes, and he heard it. The thud of the sword connecting with Laura's body. He tried not to gag as the smell of blood filled his nose.

There was a howl from deep in the Preserve, and Stiles heard Gerard chuckle at that.

"I found them. Well, I will find them. The new Alpha won't know what the hell to do. I'll be happy to gut him like I did you, Laura."

Another howl came from a different direction, further away. It sounded pained and ill-used.

"What's that?" Gerard asked.

Stiles opened his eyes to see that Gerard was looking at him, shining a light right into his eyes.

"Who are you?" Gerard demanded.

Stiles stayed still, but the voice in his ear was telling him to run, so he did. He turned and took off, hearing the older man following him. Stiles didn't know what to do, so he just ran and ran. He found a heartbeat and followed it. It wasn't until he was busting through a group of trees that he thought about the fact that if it was one heartbeat, it wasn't his father. He groaned and tried to stop, but his body seemed to have other ideas. There was something about the heartbeat that was drawing him closer and closer. There was no scent, at least on one that Stiles could pick out from the rest of the forest's scents. He heard his father heading right for him; he had a spell on his father that would always tell him what direction he was in. It was a good bit of fun that he had done once when he had gotten lost while running in the Preserve when he was thirteen.

Following the pull he was feeling, Stiles realized that while he was running, he was tripping more than anything, and Gerard was close to him. He could hear his heartbeats. There was a howl from close by, and Stiles turned to head to it. It seemed to be heading to him.

Stiles tripped over something and fell down to the ground. He groaned as he felt his arm break as it hit. He rolled to curl the arm to his chest as his body healed it back. There was crashing all around him, and he tried to ready his magic to blast the old fucker back to kingdom come, but as he did, he heard that the crashing at his head was closer. He turned to take care of that when a man with red eyes and in full Beta shift burst through. Stiles felt that pull right to him, but just as he was about to say something, the old man burst through with his sword ready. It was still dripping with Laura's blood.

Protection, that was what Stiles wanted. He rolled, and as he did, he shifted. It had been too long since he had done so in a hurry like this, so the change took them. When he was done, he wiggled out of the running clothes and looped behind the wolf who was growling at Gerard. Stiles found a bush and got into it. He watched the scene in front of him.

"Ah, I see. Another Shifter. No wonder he ran like that. I'll cut him in half after I get you," Gerard said.

The wolf growled at him, but he stayed where he was.

Stiles wasn't sure who the wolf was, but he sounded pissed off. Stiles could just see his back, heaving with each breath. He looked slightly older but nothing like Gerard. Gerard swung with the sword, but the wolf just dodged it. Stiles tried to listen to where his father was and the rest of the Deputies. He wanted to stop before this fight got bloody.

"I'm surprised you aren't over there eating your dead sister's body," Gerard said.

Stiles knew that this was Derek Hale then. He made a whining noise, which had Gerard looking at him, but Derek didn't. Derek used that to lunge, going for the belly. Gerard screamed in pain and backed away, holding the sword to protect his body. The sounds of Stiles' father getting closer were loud even to Stiles' ears. He yipped so that his father could hear that he was fine. Gerard turned to look at him in the bush and then lunged, but Derek caught him. A hand on his chest, claws dug deep into his skin.

From all angles that Stiles could see, Deputies filled the area with his father at the head of it. He saw his father look shocked at what he saw.

"Save me”, Gerard said.

"Whose blood is that?" Noah asked.

None of the Deputies had their gun pulled. They were all waiting to see what happened.

"No human," Gerard said.

"Derek," Noah said.

"Laura's." Derek flashed his eyes.

Stiles could just see the edge of the red eyes. The last that Stiles had seen him the night of the fire his eyes had been blue.

"You killed the Alpha of his pack, Gerard Argent; it's his right to do what he wants with you." Noah waved the Deputies back. "Now, where is my son?"

"That thing is your son? I should have killed him with a shot back when he saw me kill the bitch," Gerard said.

Derek growled and pushed his claws in a little more. Gerard screamed in pain, and then he was dropped.

Stiles saw Gerard land on the ground.

"You have no witnesses," Gerard said.

"Well, actually, my son was on the phone with the station. It was recorded," Noah said as he walked over and cuffed Gerard. "Alpha Hale, please go and tend to your sister's body. Deputy Karnes will go with you; he's human but is married to a Shifter who teaches high school here in town."

"Thank you," Derek said with fangs still present.

Two Deputies picked up Gerard and carted him out of there. He would be taken to have his wounds taken care of, and then he would be handed over to the FBI, the authority of hate crimes like that. One of the other Deputies started to pick up all of Stiles' clothes. He ended the call on Stiles' phone and then pocketed that.

"Stiles," Noah called out. He was looking around at the human level, probably assuming that Stiles had shifted back and was hiding because he was naked.

Stiles pawed at the ground and then trotted out from under the trees. His father looked at him, a little shocked.

"He's a fox?" one of the Deputies asked.

"Yes," Noah answered as he reached down to scoop up Stiles and hold him close.

"No wonder you don't tell anyone. We'll all keep it quiet, but Argent probably won't," the Deputy who picked up Stiles' clothes said.

"I know. We've kept it quiet for longer than I thought."

"Hale is on his way back," someone said.

Stiles buried his face into his father's neck. He felt that pull still, and he wanted to jump out of his father's arms and run for Derek.

"That was quick."

"They bury their dead, so he probably just tended to her as much as he could while not disturbing it too much until CSU gets here."

Stiles whined when Derek got into the clearing.

"Sir, is that your son?" Derek asked.

"Yes," Noah said with a hesitant tone to his voice.

Stiles whined and pawed at the air in the direction that Derek was. Derek stepped closer and held out his hand. Stiles petted the hand that was held out, and Derek chuckled.

"Son?" Noah asked.

"He's my mate," Derek said.

"What?" Noah asked.

"Laura and I were running, and we split up to chase a few animals. When I got to the far edge of the Preserve and turned back, I felt him. I started toward him. Then I felt Laura's death, I took a header down the one ravine on that side, and I felt it. There was a puddle of water on the ground, and I looked down to see my red eyes. I knew she was dead."

"Where are your siblings and cousin?"

"They are back at the house we are renting when we came back three days ago. They are all worn out as we were all running around all day, working on stuff to get them ready for school in a few days. They didn't want to go on a random run in the woods."

"So was that them, the one set of howls that we heard?"

"No, the one that was weird, I don't know who it was.

Stiles listened to the sounds around them. Just having Derek holding his paw made him feel powerful. He wanted more of that. He pulled it free, though, and let out a howl of his own. He moved to where his father was cupping his hind legs, and his front was on his shoulder; he raised his head up in a howl that reverberated through the Preserve.

"Well, everyone in town heard that," Noah said.

"Sir," someone yelled.

Stiles heard it, the sound of something rushing at them. It didn't feel bad, though. He jumped off of his father and landed on his own four legs before he shot off. He heard his father and Derek following him. He knew that someone was coming for them, but it wasn't anyone who was scary. He crashed into the person, and the scent of him was off. He smelled hospital and nothing else until he got his nose in his neck. Peter. It was Peter.

Jumping off of him, he yipped until he was sure that his father and Derek were close, then he jumped on Peter again. Stiles curled up on his chest, and one of his hands came up to pet at Stiles' head.

"Uncle?" Derek asked.

"Hello, Derek," Peter said.

Stiles felt his body go limp, and he smelled of pain.

"What happened?" Derek asked.

"I don't know. I woke up and freaked out someone in the room with me. I went through the glass of the place, and I went for my Alpha." Peter sounded exhausted.

"Let's get everyone settled into a place, and we can all talk. Gerard is on his way to central holding, and they are going to send a doctor to him instead of letting him into the hospital."

"Gerard Argent?"

"I'll explain everything. I have missed you," Derek said.

"I've missed you as well; who do I feel?" Peter asked.

"Cora, Spencer, and Malia."

"There is someone...this guy." Peter petted at Stiles again.

"That's the Sheriff's son."

"He's been visiting me."

"Yes," Noah said.

"Why?" Peter asked.

"He latched onto you after Claudia died. He visits you every single Sunday and reads to you. I never pushed it as he was happy when he went and happy when he came home. Now though, I think I know what was going on with that."

"What?" Peter asked. He moved, carrying Stiles up with him as he stood up. For a Werewolf, he was fairly steady. He still smelled of pain but was smelling better.

Stiles pushed at the little bond that he had with him. He had known about it, but Peter's Alpha had kept it pretty tightly pushed away. Stiles hadn't realized that Laura was that kind of person. He didn't want to hurt Peter, though, so he stayed still.

"He's my Mate," Derek said.

"Well, he's a good Mate so far," Peter said. He held out Stiles to Derek.

Stiles looked at his father, who didn't look worried. It felt good to be in Derek's arms. It felt right.

* * *

Stiles jumped from the back of the couch down to the ground before taking off through the kitchen to head outside. He dove through the doggie door that his father had put on the house and rushed out. He was halfway across the yard when Derek scooped him up. Stiles licked at his face and settled into his arms when he pulled him all the way into his body. Stiles rubbed his face into Derek's neck and then just went limp.

"I've missed you too," Derek said.

"He's been like that for a day," Noah said as he stepped out of the back of the house with a cup of coffee in his hand.

Stiles could smell it, and he whined a little.

"New York and closing everything down and out and finding homes for the Betas that didn't want to come with me took a lot longer than I thought that it would."

"How many are you bringing back?"

"None," Derek said.

"None? That's..."

"Laura had us living on a war footing. We weren't living the best. I'm hoping to have a better life here. I know you said there are a few Shifters in the area who need a good Alpha. I'm willing to be that. I'm willing to be what this town needs, what this town had for years with my mother."

Stiles nipped at Derek's neck and heard his father laugh. Stiles needed a good Alpha, and he hoped that Derek was the kind of Alpha that his mother had been.


	2. Chapter 1

# Chapter 1

### June 2024

Stiles settled his newest set of books on the shelf to show them off to the windows at the front of the door. He was pleased with the books that had been released that week that fit what his customers liked. He didn't get many people in the store for the fiction books he stocked, but he got more than enough. The two other book stores in town supplied books to most people in town, but Stiles supplied books to the people who shopped there a good bit.

"How are you feeling?" Peter asked as he came out of the back of the shop. He wasn't supposed to be working that day, so Stiles had no clue what he was doing there.

"Good."

"How is Liam?"

"Still recovering. He's at the Hale house, and Spencer is with him."

"Yes, I know that's why I'm here. You need to rest as well. Work on the books in the back or something. I can handle all of this."

Stiles sighed, but he did as Peter asked. He knew that he wasn't going to win on that one. Peter would call Derek, who would make it an order that he was to relax.

"I have all of the paperwork caught up, but the house is too busy for me right now. I'll go sit in the corner and read." Stiles laid the last of the books the way that he wanted them. When it was the way he wanted, he walked to the register to grab his pot of tea and his cup, and his Kindle. Peter laughed at him a little, but Stiles just stuck his tongue out at him.

Stiles got settled into his favorite armchair in the café section of the shop. The building had been up for sale just at the right time when Stiles had graduated with his business and a magical degree from Yale. He hadn't wanted to go that far away from the pack, but Derek had insisted when he was given a free ride to Yale.

Yale was the most prestigious of the schools in the US as far as magical degrees went. It was good for the pack to have Stiles in it with going to Yale. Stiles was pretty sure it was part of why they were so respected. To most of the people that Stiles met, they still thought him just a magic user and not a Shifter as well. Stiles was more than okay with that. Gerard had been kept in isolation in the holding cell and hadn't been allowed to talk to anyone until his lawyer talked to him, only his lawyer hadn't been on the up and up and ended up killing Gerard. Gerard had taken what he knew about Stiles to the grave. Which was the best thing overall.

Stiles picked up his cup of the and took a sip. He grinned as the tea was still warm. There was nothing better than tea that was at the right temperature to drink. He had taught himself the spell when he had been in college so that he could keep his tea warm while studying. It had been an easy spell to learn but hard to get exactly right.

"Lunch?" Peter asked.

"I was going to order pizza. Not a bunch of Weres to guilt me into giving them part of mine. Did you want something else?"

"Well, I was going to be willing to head to get the good sushi if you wanted."

"Hmm, that does sound good." Stiles nodded his head. He looked at the time. It was their slow period since most people didn't come here during lunch hour unless it was desperate. He would have time to just read unless someone came into the shop. "You know what I like."

"I do. I'll be back as soon as possible. Is the cooled bag still in the back?"

"Yes." Stiles closed his Kindle and watched as Peter took care of whatever he had been working on to keep himself entertained.

Peter was meticulous with these things. It was why he and Stiles worked so well together here. Peter was a tea snob and hated that his favorite tea shop had closed when he had been in a coma. When Stiles had come home from college and knew he wanted to open a place up to use his magic and help those who were in the city, he hadn't blinked at adding in a tea section so that Peter could be a snob. The books had come by accident and had only grown over the last few years. The pack bought enough books to read that Derek got them from a discount place, and then they were resold here. Even the ones that the pack read went into a gently used section. It worked well enough for them all.

Stiles heard the door in the back open and shut, and he turned his hearing to the front. He would get lost in his reading again, but he trained his senses well enough to know when someone was getting close to where he was. Peter would be gone at least an hour, which was just fine. The sounds of the shop were always something that helped to keep Stiles calm.

The sound of a group of kids had Stiles looked up. High school kids came by sometimes to get drinks during their lunch hour during school, but it was rare. Even rarer now that school was out for the summer. He looked at the tea he had today on tap and found that it would be the group of kids who always came when he had that one on ice. Stiles stood up as the door opened.

"Stiles!" one of the kids yelled.

"Hey!"

"Five extra larges?" Stiles asked.

"Six actually, we got a newbie with us," the main kid said. He tugged a girl out from behind the brick wall that was the linebacker for the football team. "This is Haley."

"Hi," Haley said.

"Hello, my name is Stiles, and this is my shop. You can follow Devon there, and he'll show you how to help yourself to tea. Still, all being rung up together?"

"Yeah, Devon said.

Stiles watched as Devon showed Haley the tea pitchers and how to get tea out of them. It looked like Devon had a crush on her. She was looking at him like she did as well. The other four guys were all laughing as they talked. They were hanging back, though, and letting the cute little couple get their thing on. He walked over to ring them up. Devon paid, and they were gone in moments, leaving the shop smelling like teenage lust.

Grabbing his tea and his Kindle, Stiles moved back over to the register to sit there and read. He found that Peter had left a few treats for him at the register. Stiles opened up the small Reese's cup. He popped it into his mouth. Peter always carried the candy with him. Stiles didn't keep them in the shop, or he would sit and eat every single one of them. The pair of them didn't even last a second, and they were so small that all they did was make Stiles more hungry. He hoped that Peter got a good bit of sushi for the pair of them. Peter usually did.

The back door opened up, and Stiles frowned as he hadn't heard Peter's car pull up, but his focus had been the front, so he might have missed it. He waited to hear if Peter started to hum. He usually did when he was walking around in the back. He heard the start of the hum, and so Stiles smiled. It took only a minute for Peter to come up, carry five bags of food.

"I got all of our favorites," Peter said as he handed over what looked like one of the beers he liked from the place as well. It was a normal human beer, so he couldn't get drunk; he just liked the taste. He popped the cap and took a sip as Peter worked on getting the food out of the first bag. All of the bags were spelled to keep the food cold inside. Peter handed Stiles a pair of chopsticks and then started to eat his food.

"Thanks," Stiles said.

"Of course," Peter said back.

"The teens were in. Devon has a crush."

"Oh, that's why this place smells of hormones." Peter's lips curled in a sneer, but his eyes were playful.

Stiles laughed. Peter loved to mess with the kids. They were close enough to the school that they got a bit of foot traffic from the ones allowed off campus to eat. Thankfully though, most of the kids didn't like going there as they didn't have food. Tea, yes, food no.

"How is the newest project coming?" Peter waved his hand at the notes behind them at the work station that Stiles had set up to work there while also helping customers.

"Good. Too tired today magically to do it, but I'll get some good progress tomorrow."

"You aren't overdoing it, are you?" Peter asked. There was more than just a simple bit of worry there.

"No, no. I promise. Liam's good, but he only needed me to encourage his body to heal up. I didn't need to force it to heal. Has Boyd or Isaac figured out what pack did that?"

"No. Satomi's looking as well as one of her Betas was injured, not nearly as bad as Liam but close enough that even she's a little worked up."

Stiles nodded his head to that. He knew that there were a lot of people who were worked up about the pack of Weres who were fucking around and harming members of packs that they found alone. The FBI, Beacon County Sheriff's, and even the State Police were looking for them, and many more lone members of packs who wanted revenge. He picked up the folder with the last report that had gone out to all of the packs in Beacon County. The Hale Pack was the largest, with Satomi Ito's being the second, and they were both centered in Beacon Hills and the areas right around it. Stiles was trying to figure out what was going on with all of it, but he hadn't figured it out yet.

"Let's talk about something else. Did that batch of Wolfsbane seeds come in?" Peter asked.

"Yes. Spencer took care of them, and they are at the greenhouse in the special section. He said that he would try and get them growing as soon as he had space. The one plant is nearly ready to harvest, so there will be space in a week. I also got the new Mountain Ash berries in. I'll see what I can do with them. They feel like they like me already."

Peter snorted.

Stiles was special in more ways than one, and all of it was around him being a Werefox. He knew that he was prized for that, but in the Hale Pack, he had never been treated as anything other than another Beta, outside of the deference for being the Alpha Mate that was. Stiles worked just as hard as the rest of the pack to make sure that Derek was supported. Stiles had been given a loan by Peter for the shop and then paid him back in pretty much the first year since people came from all over for his special items. There wasn't a magical user like him in this area of California, so people came and spent hundreds if not thousands every few months on curatives and the like. The bestseller that he had was his potions that got rid of Wolfsbane poisoning. Stiles had figured out in college how to make a potion that would work on every single kind of wolfsbane. The FBI paid a handsome fee to get enough of it from him to use across the country.

"So, what's this?" Peter asked as he tapped an image on the paper that was by the register.

"Oh, Adam's coming to town to talk to Derek about something to do with the alliance between the Hale and Gajos packs. He wanted a new bit of ink, and he told me kind of what he wanted, and I just started to draw. I have seven others for him. This one I dreamed up last night. I don't know what it is, but I really like it." Stiles traced the edges of the image.

"It's...old. Older than you have studied given that you went through school quickly. You've probably seen it in the books you've read here. Is Robbie coming with him?"

"No, just Adam. He's coming alone. Why?"

"I miss talking to Robbie. We like to compare and contrast being raised in a pack here in Beacon Hills and where his mother raised him in Poland. Also, I think I'm about one good drunk night from getting his name out of him."

Stiles snorted. "What have you tried?"

"Well, everything that even remotely comes to Robert in French and Polish given his parents."

"Ah, there is your issue." Stiles tried to keep his face straight, but he couldn't.

"What?"

"My first name is as close to Stiles as Robbie's is to Robert."

"Robert is his middle name." Peter looked like his mind was blown.

"Yes."

"That little fucker."

Stiles couldn't help but laugh. "His mother was at least nice and gave him a normal middle name. Not like Genim. It's quite horrible."

"Have you heard from Celeste or Kaïs recently?"

"As a family or as an ally?"

"Family," Peter said, looking at Stiles like he was an idiot.

"Yeah, Auntie called me two weeks ago. We talked for an hour and a half. She was driving back from somewhere in New York, and I was her car buddy. I just set my phone on speaker, and we talked as I ran the shop. We paused when people came in, but mostly it was fine."

"Mostly fine?"

"There is a small issue with a fight between a few packs in the Arizona area, and they are being tapped to handle it."

"They are in New York...the FBI wants them to take over the country?"

"That's what she assumes as well. Robbie's not sure how he feels about that. He was fine with the Eastern Seaboard and a little into the middle but not the whole country."

"They want a centralized Hunter group taking care of everything that they don't."

"And the Gajos' clan's ethos is more matching them. I think that they want to make Hunters a fully legal agency instead of more like Bounty Hunters. It would be great if so, and Celeste running it would be great, but that would also lead to a thing where it's inherited instead of by who can do the best job. There is a lot that she doesn't know at the moment. I mean, look at the Argents. It was in the last hundred years that they started to be the assholes they were until Chris and Allison."

"Yes, and now they are forced to stay here."

"Only Chris. Allison chooses to stay because of Scott. They are a bit of a weird pair, but they are still in love, just fighting it. They probably will until the end of time."

Peter snorted at that and grabbed the next bag of food.

They ate and enjoyed talking about people in town. They were both gossipy, but they didn't spread things. They just loved to hear little bits of what idiots people were.

"Closing at normal time today?"

"Yes. I have the Marlowes coming in at six to pick up a few things. I have them set aside already. It's gonna be a nice day money-wise."

Peter nodded his head. "Then I'll stay until then. You go back to the house and relax. Stay up in the bedroom."

"No, thanks. I'd rather just stay here. Jackson's on the kick again where since I'm Alpha Mate, that means that I'm a slave to the Betas, and I have to cook for them. I'd rather not be around to hear that even if he's not saying it to my face."

"When I train with them next, I'll make sure that the point goes across. That also reminds me of something I meant to ask you, does your family know?"

"About..." Stiles wasn't sure what Peter was asking.

"Werefox."

"Oh, no. It's not that I don't trust them. It's just that Mom never did. They knew from when I was four, but she and Dad never told them, so I kept it from them. Never asked Dad after I tried once when Aunt Celeste came for a visit when I was twelve, and he told me to just keep my mouth shut."

"I see. Well, I nearly said something, but then I realized that they had never brought it up before, so I wasn't sure if they just didn't talk about it or they didn't know about it."

"I think that Mom was very worried that her sister would take me from her. Her paranoia, I think, was manifesting long before she got violent about it. Like when I was born. I have no way of figuring that out, though."

"I can see it. I wasn't around anyone who wasn't in the pack back then. I was too involved in learning everything that I needed to be Talia's Left Hand, and then I was in college. I was gone for a year while Derek dealt with the Paige fallout on his own. If I had known that Talia had handled it that way, I would have pushed my year of learning abroad with other packs to a different time. Then Kate never would have even got anywhere near as close as she did. My family would be alive. It was Talia's own hubris that caused it and not listening to me."

"Looks like we both just wanna talk about sad shit," Stiles said.

Peter nodded, laughing a little.

"Let's talk about Spencer's crush on that girl who works at the diner," Stiles offered.

* * *

The house was a mass of chaos when Stiles pulled into his spot beside Derek's SUV. He took a deep breath and let it out. He saw Liam was on the porch, leaning on the banister. Stiles grabbed his backpack that had a little work he was going to be doing at home, the room that he had to do his magic in. He wasn't going in until the afternoon to meet with someone. Spencer had the shop the next day, and Peter would drop in to cover his lunch and a break halfway through the morning. Stiles would be staying and covering after his meeting. He had a few things he needed to do, and the shop wasn't the place for it.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" Stiles asked Liam as he looked at him when Stiles got out of the Jeep.

"Good. I feel great, actually. The wounds are all gone, and the lingering pain is gone as well. Thanks again."

"You are welcome. Anything I need to know? Do you remember anything else?" Stiles asked. He walked up onto the porch and leaned on the banister beside Liam. He bumped their shoulders together.

"No. I can hear the voices, and I am sure I would know them, but their faces are still obscured. Derek wants you to head to him as soon as you get inside. He's up in your guys' bedroom. I wanted to tell you that he asked and didn't order."

"But depending on who tells me, they will make it sound like an order and that I need to go right now. I need to drop my bag off in my magic room; I'll text Derek that." Stiles pulled his cell phone out and texted Derek that he would be up as soon as he was done putting up his backpack. Derek knew how Stiles liked to make sure it was put up. They had five kids running around the place, and two of them were human and didn't have the knowledge to know that the backpack had bad things inside of it.

Stiles smiled as he got a message back from Derek that just told him to hurry but take his time.

"Idiot," Stiles said in the fondest tone that he had. He listened to the house, but many of the rooms were muffled with magic to make sure that sounds didn't carry around. The bedrooms were always soundless when the doors were shut, and he couldn't hear Derek inside.

"He's your idiot, though," Liam said.

"Yeah, he is, and I wouldn't change him out for anyone or anything in the world."

"Go ahead in. You ate dinner, right?"

"Yes, Peter fed me dinner as well as lunch."

Liam laughed and bumped their shoulders together again before he looked up at the sky again. The stars weren't out yet, but it was heading toward dusk, and therefore they would be.

Stiles pushed off the banister and headed to the door. He gripped the strap on his backpack and took a deep breath as he opened the door. He heard the voices wash over him. From outside, most of the sounds were muffled to where there was just a dull roar, but now that the door was open and he was inside, he could hear it all. He loved the sound of the house, but after the quiet of the shop, Stiles sometimes took a few to acclimatize. He had grown up in a very quiet house after his mother had died. It was only loud when Scott was over, and they played together.

"Hey, get your ass up to our Alpha!" Jackson yelled as Stiles passed by the door to the living room.

"I will be as soon as I drop my stuff off."

"He said as soon as you got in!"

"And I texted him that I needed to drop this off. He told me to take my time."

"I don't care." Jackson got up off the couch and walked around it to follow Stiles to the back of the house where the door was that went down to Stiles' area of the basement.

Stiles felt the grab on his backpack, and he was jerked back enough that it kind of hurt. The ripping sound of the material of his backpack had him throwing out his hand to catch anything that could fall. A growl sounded through the house.

"See, he's pissed," Jackson said with a smirk.

"Actually, he's pissed because you hurt me and that you nearly got everyone in here sick. You know better than to touch my backpack, Jackson. I bring home ingredients in this, and one of them is a vaporized version of wolfsbane that was found to be in a room with a dead pack of wolves. The FBI gave me a sample of it to see if I can figure out what it is. It was so thick that not even humans could go in there." Stiles started to snatch every single thing that was now hanging in the air and get them into his backpack. It had ripped at the zipper so it wouldn't close, but he could get it down to his room.

"Jackson," Derek growled from the top of the stairs at the back of the house.

Stiles looked up at him to see that his eyes were glowing red. Stiles felt his own eyes flash in response. Derek's face softened a little at the flash of purple. Stiles had good control of his eyes, and he had never flashed them at anyone before Derek. It was a response from him every single time that Derek's eyes flashed. It was like the fox inside of him wanted to show deference, and it was the best way.

"Step back from him and do not ever grab him like that again," Derek said as he came down the stairs.

"Yes, Alpha."

"I would have thought that you wouldn't want the kids into the backpack again since it was your daughter that nearly died the last time Stiles had to leave it somewhere other than his room. You are never to question him like that again. You told him that I wanted him; you should have dropped it after that. He gets away with more shows of disobedience than you, and he told you to stop it. His word is the law," Derek said.

"Yes, Alpha."

"If you had been listening to him on the porch, you would have heard him telling Liam that he was going to text me."

"I-" Jackson stopped and swallowed. That meant that he had just tried to lie to Derek. It wasn't a good thing, really, it wasn't. Derek didn't like it.

"Yes?" Derek asked.

"I'm sorry."

"It's not just me that you need to be sorry to. You've been getting worse and worse in regards to Stiles over the last two months. What the hell is going on?"

"He's not acting like an Alpha Mate is supposed to."

"And how do you know? Before you joined this pack, you had never been in one. Your parents kept you Omega on purpose since they didn't want to lose you. You hated it."

"Well, there is a book that Scott had that I read."

"A fiction book?"

"NO!" Jackson shook his head. "No, it's one of the books from a sale that happened in town. Scott went to get the animals there to take to Deaton after the owner passed away, and none of the kids wanted any. They were gearing up for the sale, and there was a set of pack books. He brought them back."

"The Marley estate sale," Stiles said as it was the only one that he knew of in the time that Jackson was talking about. Marley had been kicked out of the Hale Pack when Peter had been a kid. His ideas on what a pack should and shouldn't be rivaled the humans who thought that women should be barefoot and pregnant all of the time. For Alpha Mates, it wasn't always women. Talia Hale had ruled the pack until her death, and she and her husband ruled together, much like Derek and Stiles did. It was a good way of doing it in Stiles' eyes. Gregory Hale would not have been a man who would be happy with living in the house pretty much all of the time and taking care of the kids as his only job. Stiles didn't have a single paternal bone in his body as far as his own children went. He and Derek were happy with none. They had talked about that long and hard while Stiles had been in college. It was why Stiles was thirty, and they still didn't have kids. The pack kids were enough, and it wasn't like the Alpha Spark wouldn't go to one of Cora or Spencer's kids.

"You read a book that Marley had? The man that would have had everyone in this pack who can bear children knocked up all the time? Despite what they wanted? He wanted my Mom to have a child for every single year that she was Alpha and told her this when she was seven. That kind of book is not anywhere near what this pack is like. His thoughts on women were only paled by the fact that he wanted pack members to pay a tithe to be in the pack. Based on a sliding scale ratio of how much you make. Not how much it takes you to live but how much you make. Have seven kids? Oh well, should have used birth control instead of having seven kids even though he hated birth control. Think about that before you read shit that was published that even my Uncle would have wanted to burn, and he considers book burning the worst thing in the world that isn't crimes against a person. So yeah, keep on with that kind of shit and find yourself without a wife and possibly a pack."

"Then who is supposed to care for the pack if not the Alpha Mate?"

"Who do you think protects us in the ways that matter? It's his magic that surrounds this place. He's the one that heals us when we are injured. He makes sure that we don't hurt. I don't give a fuck if he can't boil water to make mac and cheese as what he does is worth more than anything else that he might do as a 'housewife' or whatever you think he should be based on that shit book. Everyone to their houses or their rooms if they live here. Dinner has been eaten, and I don't feel like hearing from you all. If you wanna hang out, go to someone else's place."

Derek didn't do things like that all that often. He usually loved the house's chaos, but today it seemed that Jackson had pissed him off. Stiles went down to take his stuff to his room, and he made sure it was locked so that no one but him, Derek, and Peter could get in there. He was glad when the house was pretty well cleaned out by the time that he got upstairs to his bedroom. He found that Derek was sitting at the desk in the far corner.

"Hey, handsome."

Stiles saw the way that Derek grinned at that.

"Tomorrow is Sunday," Stiles said.

"Yes."

"You don't work. I don't go in until late."

"You smell exhausted."

"Yes, I know, but I thought that since most everyone ran away, we could spend the morning in bed."

"Sounds good to me. We've not a lie in for talking, cuddling, or sex in a while."

"Too crazy," Stiles said. He shut the door to their room and walked over to stand behind Derek, rubbing at his shoulders before ducking down to wrap his arms around his neck and cuddling in close. He enjoyed feeling Derek in his arms. He looked at the paper that Derek was reading as it looked like an email. It was probably from another pack. Even after over a decade, there were still those who kept trying to make friends with Derek after he had fought tooth and nail to get his land back and the chaos that the cut down Nemeton had dropped into Beacon Hills. Derek didn't make allies easy except for the ones he had made while defending Beacon Hills. The packs and the Alphas that had made friends with him to help him take back what had been his family's. Stiles was all about that as well. If they wanted friends since Derek's pack was strong, they didn't need them. They would want something.

"Let's go to bed. Work will be there for both of us later." Derek twisted fast and grabbed Stiles, and carried him back to the bed. He scented Stiles' neck and just laid on top of him. Stiles wrapped his legs and arms around him, holding his Alpha tight. This was the life.


	3. Chapter 2

# Chapter 2

### June 2024

Stiles loved feeling Derek wrapped around him. He loved the feel of his Mate in bed. They didn't get it as often as Stiles would like given their jobs. Derek would have to head into the station later, but he would at least be back before bedtime, given the shift he was working. The sounds around the room were still silent. The house was dead as well. He wondered if everyone had fled to not run the chance of hearing them. Stiles loved sex. Derek loved sex, and they both really loved sex together.

Waiting until Stiles was eighteen hadn't been nearly as horrible as Stiles had thought it was going to be. They had taken the year and a few months from when they met to get to know each other. Derek learned how to talk to Stiles about anything and everything. They discussed what Stiles wanted out of life, and Derek had talked about him, not knowing. By the time that Stiles was legal for Derek to have sex with, Stiles felt like he had known Derek his whole life. He had been more than willing to give everything that he was to Derek.

Everything after that had been just a whirlwind of falling in love with Derek a little more each day.

Reaching up, Stiles pressed his fingers to the Mating bite on his shoulder. He felt the ridges of the scars that were there. It was the only mark that Derek had left on his body that was permanent. There were always bruises that faded quickly with Stiles' healing factor. There were the scratches when they both got a little out of control, especially on full moons. It was good.

"You are thinking too hard," Derek said as he stretched a little, his arms never coming off of Stiles' body.

"Just thinking about us is all."

"What about us?"

"Sex," Stiles said.

"Is that something you want?" Derek asked, one of his hands moving down Stiles' chest to cup his erection. They were both in boxers just if they needed to do something other than sex first thing, like taking care of someone getting onto their property.

"You know it is," Stiles said. He could smell his arousal, which meant that Derek could as well.

"Well, then." Derek splayed his hand over Stiles' lower stomach and held him in place as he rocked his hips into Stiles' ass. Derek was hard already, so it wasn't the worst thing in the world. "Get on your knees."

"Fuck yeah," Stiles said. He did as he was told but stripped his boxers off at the same time. He laughed when Derek gave him a love tap on the ass.

Derek wasted no time in spreading Stiles' cheeks before his finger was there. Stiles hadn't heard the cap of the lube snapping, so he must have taken it off. It was the standard since Derek had taken the closing part of the cap off enough when he was in a rush to fuck Stiles. Even after twelve years of sex, they still couldn't get enough of each other.

Stiles felt a finger breach him, and he didn't care how many fingers he used. Derek always made sure that he was slick enough. The press of cock was perfect. He wanted more of it and loved the way that Derek ever so slowly pushed into him. He groaned as he dropped his head down. He struggled to get up to his elbows, but the way that Derek was fucking him gave him no chance to get up. He loved it, though. He loved the feel of Derek wanting him so much. He didn't want this to stop but knew that it had to. The orgasm came at some point.

Derek came first, pressing into Stiles as far as he could. Derek bore them down to their sides after his cock had softened and slipped from Stiles. He wrapped his hand around Stiles' cock to get him off.

Stiles couldn't understand a single word that Derek said as he was too lost in the pleasure of Derek getting him off, but he understood their meaning.

Stiles knew that Derek liked to talk about how good Stiles smelled like this, how he felt around Derek's cock. How there are days that Derek can barely function for want of having Stiles on his cock or his mouth wrapped around it.

Orgasm crashed over Stiles, and he heard the ripping of another set of bedsheets. Derek chuckled and settled in for a quick snuggle. Showering would come later when they both felt like they could leave the bed. Stiles was usually ready to move long before Derek, but he stayed until Derek was ready to get up.

"Hungry?" Derek asked a little while later.

"Hmm, yeah, bacon." Stiles tried to wake up from the light doze that he had fallen into. He was a pretty good feeling, even with just waking up. He always slept well when Derek was in bed with him. He sat up and grimaced at the release that was matter all over him and dried. He groaned and got up, heading into the bathroom as quickly as possible. He didn't want to feel this any more than he had to.

The water took little time at all to warm up, and then he was under it and letting the hot water clean him up a little. He had just started to soap up his hair when Derek got into the shower. He leaned back into his Mate and enjoyed the feel of Derek rubbing his beard up and down his neck, scenting him despite the water falling on them.

"You have to work this afternoon and are closing, right?" Derek asked.

"Yes."

"Then, I will see you when you get home. I checked my messages, and the Sheriff wants me to come in early. There was something that the DA needed even though it's fucking Sunday. I guess for the case, I'm supposed to be in court for tomorrow to give testimony."

"Probably. You know that Jackson's father is an asshole when it comes to that kind of thing. It's good, though, since his win/lose ratio is the best in the state for DAs."

"Still would rather be here with you. What are you going to do before work?"

"Head out into the Preserve and check on a few things. The wards around the area and the plants I have growing in the wild."

"Enjoy your hike, take food."

"I will, Worryalpha," Stiles said.

Derek laughed as he always did when Stiles made a nickname for him like that.

"How long do you think you'll be gone?"

"Three or four hours to make the whole lap of what I want to check on. I'll be staying well inside the borders. I went with Parrish last week and checked the outer borders. There is a little weird feedback when the Betas check the perimeters, and I want to see what I can feel. Scott said it felt like something was just not coming in right, like being a hair off on the dial of the old-time radios."

"I don't feel that when I head out."

"Yup, and the Betas do. That's why I don't want anyone with me. I want to see what is going on for myself."

"You protect us so well."

Stiles soaked up the praise. He worked on finishing getting clean and not letting Derek distract him with words or with his hands. Derek wasn't always frisky when in the shower, but he was more often than not.

Derek was done first, washing quickly to get out while Stiles like the water's feel on him. With so many people in the place and the ability to get dirty was like a sport, they had several hot water tanks, and no more than two things were run off them. Like two bathrooms or the kitchen and the laundry room. It was costly to do when Derek had built the place, but it had been how the old Hale House was.

Getting dressed took little time. He was in jeans to protect himself from cuts. Yes, he healed up well, but he didn't need to be stupid about getting cuts, especially where people could see them that weren't pack. He was at least usually smart about not doing something stupid with it.

There were a few of the pack members wandering around the lower level of the house. Stiles fixed himself some eggs to go with the bacon and potatoes that Derek had made for him before he had gone out. They rarely ate breakfast together with their schedules, at least when one of them was working. Days where they were both off, which was always on Derek's days off, they ate all three meals together.

Stiles owning his own business allowed him to make his own schedule and his father always had the next month's schedules out before the middle of the month. It is what he wanted so that people could move things around if needed. Kids' activities were easy to swap shifts for and the like. It made sure that he had fewer people who were upset at the schedules. Mostly everyone worked the same thing, but when someone was scheduled off for vacation or a day shift needed a day off for a doctor's appointment for themselves or a kid, it was just easier to make sure that everyone was on the same page.

The Preserve was quiet, even with the sun getting higher and higher in the sky. He had more than enough food for snacks and his lunch in the backpack on his back. Water was plenty, and he had even brought some flavored with him. He was used to this kind of thing. He did it at least once a month for the inner wards and every few months with the outer wards, with one of the Deputies from the pack going with him. Derek had done for a year, but lately, he pushed it off on someone else.

The trees were happy; the pulsing from the Nemeton made them happy. Stiles found the Nemeton easily and settled down onto the ground beside it. The new tree was growing well after Stiles had fixed it after his first year at Yale. The old Nemeton had been destroyed in the creation of the new one. Despite that, the tree was growing quickly and well. Stiles sat there and listened to the trees and the animals where they were all around. Every animal was known to Stiles, for the most part. He didn't know each one, but he knew kind of what they were.

Once Stiles was sure that his mind was in tune with the life around him, he got up and headed to the edge of the inner ward. He snagged a few leaves and crushed them in his hands, and smelled them. Stiles' use of magic was strange as weird as it was for all Werefoxes. It was all nature-related, but nature could be horrible. Stiles could hurt people with a lot of what he did, and as long as he was around anything nature-related, he had a well of magic he could tap into.

Stiles snagged a few more leaves from another tree further down the line. Everything was good. It was all a very good bit of growth. The forest was thicker than it had been when he was a teenager. There were areas where the trees were so thick that there was a near full shade under the trees in summer. Stiles loved the Preserve even more now. He fell in love with it every single day that he was able to be there.

An hour into the walk, Stiles stopped to eat his lunch since he was hungry. It wasn't like he couldn't get more food when he was on his way to work if he was hungry again. There were also berries in areas of the Preserve. Stiles didn't stay long in one spot for eating. He could feel the weird feedback the closer he got to the Preserve point at the furthest point away from the house. He stopped where it was and tried to figure it out. Stiles didn't run the perimeter as the other Betas did. He protected them, and that meant that he didn't have the needed anything to fuck around.

Stiles snagged a tree, and he listened to it. The tree was happy, and it wasn't stressed. He wasn't sure what was going on until he found the spot. Someone had carved a hole in his ward, and it was the issue with feedback the pack was feeling. The hole was just small enough and done well enough that he wasn't feeling it from anywhere but right on it. He pricked his finger with the knife he carried with him, dropping blood to ask nature to come to his aid as he weaved a spell to fill the hole.

"How did this happen?" Stiles asked himself. He knew of no one who was close enough to do that. This was someone new. Stiles settled in at the ground at the base of where the hole was. He reached out and tried to find the thread of magic left by the person who had done this.

Stiles texted that he was going to be late to go back to the and he was going straight to the shop to Peter. He told Peter he could call later and tell him more about it but that he didn't have the time at the moment.

"Who are you?" Stiles asked as the magic he found around the outside of the wards left a taste in his mouth. The outer wards were not broken. So that meant the person had crossed the first wards and then was stopped by the second and then cut through them. He was going to have to walk both sets of wards more. He would have Peter and Spencer work in the shop while he did a full accounting of everything over the next week.

Stiles was near the end when he felt pain over the bonds with the Betas. He felt the pull toward where the Beta who was injured was. He took off running, hoping that it was just an idiot who had fallen into a ravine. It had happened before, so he was pretty sure it would happen again. Though, the feeling of panic told him that he had more than a little wishful thinking on that.

The smell of blood told Stiles that he was very wrong. He skidded to a stop and growled as he saw Malia on the ground with blood all around her. She looked like she had been beaten to shit. There was a rustle, and Stiles turned around to see a man standing there. He was covered in blood and looked feral.

"Little human," the man said.

Stiles grabbed the baggie of Mountain Ash powder and tossed it. The man's face fell, and then he was trapped.

"Little human who knows what to do with the likes of you." Stiles checked on Malia and found that she was unconscious but healing. He pulled his phone out and called Derek on his line at the station. He knew he was working at his desk for at least part of his shift with having to talk to the DA.

"Stiles, I can't-"

"I have a man trapped who attacked Malia."

"That's what that was? It felt like someone fell down the ravine again."

"Yeah, no. Track my phone and get here with deputies. I'm going to call the house and have someone come and get Malia. She's going to need something to heal up all the way."

"Parrish is close to there on patrol according to the map. So I'll send him, and he can take Malia there, and if she talks, he's there to take it all down. We will be there as soon as he can. Is he being held?"

"He's a Shifter of some kind."

"You're going to die," the man said.

Stiles looked at him and watched as he bit down on something.

"Bring EMT's instead of transport."

"Why?"

"He tried to slip out the easy way before he could be interrogated."

"And?" Derek asked.

"I'm not gonna let that happen." Stiles dropped to his knees beside him, reaching through and popping the man's mouth open, and he cracked open a vial and dumped it down the man's mouth. He forced him to swallow. He uncorked another and dumped it, making the man swallow again to make sure that he stayed asleep until it was time for him to wake up.

* * *

"How are you?" Derek asked as he dropped down into the seat beside where Stiles was sitting in the little infirmary off his working rooms. Malia was on a bed on the far side of the room. She wasn't healing as fast as she should, and it was the poison that had been on the man's claws that had done it. It had taken Stiles an hour to figure out what the poison was, and now he was waiting for it to make its way through Malia's body to get rid of it.

"I'm good. How long did it take to break him?"

"We didn't. He's still quiet. The FBI picked him up, though, as he's attacked seven other packs in seven other states. Malia is the only one to live, and the poison was the key. As soon as Parrish called with what it was. So that's something. The attacks have been against packs, but no one else has attacked those other packs. So I don't know what to do about that."

Derek leaned into Stiles' body and wrapped an arm around him. He tucked his face into Stiles' neck.

"They will get him in some way. He will go to prison for what he did. He had her blood all over him. There is no way for him to escape."

"The Nemeton was happy?" Derek asked.

"Yes. It's happy and content. I patched a hole in the inner wards. I need to get a good look at the outer ones again soon. With a group with me, just to be safe. He and Malia were outside of the inner wards, so I don't think it was him. It was someone strongly magical. I'm going to talk to a few other Emissaries from packs in Beacon County to see if they have any issues like it. It'll be interesting to know what they have going on."

Stiles looked at where Peter was in bed with Malia. His hand was over her stomach, rising and falling with each breath that she took. Stiles was keeping her asleep so that she slept through the pain of the poison leaving her.

"Did Spencer get your appointment moved?" Derek asked.

"Yeah, once they heard that someone in the pack was attacked, they changed it. They know that I'm a worrywart when it comes to that and that I wouldn't want to leave her bedside."

"What do you want to eat?"

"I'll go up and get some. Peter's down here with her so I can relax."

"How was he?"

"Freaked out. Everyone is. You need to make sure they understand it was a lone guy acting on serial-like impulses. It's just too close to-"

"I know how to handle them," Derek said.

"Of course," Stiles said. He looked at where Peter was. He saw that Peter's shoulders were tense in a way they hadn't been seconds before.

"I'm going up and eating. You are going with me."

Stiles didn't try and fight Derek at all on that. He wasn't going to win, and he knew it. He just got up and walked over to Peter to touch his shoulder.

Peter looked back at Stiles with a smile and a nod. It wasn't like Stiles couldn't hear anything in the room. The room was warded, but only when the door was shut. That way, no one could hear any privileged medical information. Stiles wasn't a doctor, but he was kind of the pack therapist, and they talked about a lot of things. Derek usually only wanted to know if something was going on that was going to affect the pack. There was no one who was having issues, not since Liam had finally gotten full control of his anger before Stiles was even out of high school. The boy was a walking timebomb for most of his childhood.

"Go," Peter said.

Stiles smiled at him, and he felt a twinge of something over the bond with Derek. When he looked at his Mate, Derek wasn't looking at him but looking at his phone. Stiles figured it was something to do with the person he had been texting a lot lately. A contact with another pack about an alliance to help control the lower areas of the state. All of the California packs were united on many things, at least the packs that had a good hold on their area. Not so much the ones that were small and had no real control of their area. There were a few packs like that, but they usually fell under the protection of another pack.

Derek looked up at Stiles and smiled at him. Stiles walked over to him so they could head up to the first floor and eat dinner.

Boyd and Isaac were the ones cooking; the pack mostly rotated through who cooked a meal but lately, it had been more a free for all who wanted to cook and what everyone wanted. Boyd made killer taco meat, so he was always tapped to make tacos. Which was what it looked like was made for their meal. Stiles snagged a plate and started to load up his shells with what he wanted. Boyd had made the black beans, which went into every single one with only a little chicken next. The veg was just lettuce and tomatoes. Then the guacamole and pico de gallo. He got as much of each as he could stuff in the shells and then grabbed a fork to head over to the table for some rice and queso with chips.

"Hungry?" Jackson asked.

"Yes. I expended a lot of magic today fixing the hole that someone carved into the wards and then keeping Malia alive while the poison took its course in her body."

"You could wait until we are all through before getting that much," Jackson said.

Stiles looked at Jackson's plate to see that he had more than Stiles. "Maybe you should do the same."

"I work for a living; I ran patrol today. I'm hungry."

Stiles scoffed. "I work for a living as well. Today I was supposed to be doing a consult that would have garnered me, and this pack, several thousand dollars a day for three weeks while I created the wards that they want for their new house with the issues that they had been having with the magic the kid has been throwing off. So back off," Stiles said.

Jackson growled, and it only took a single snarl from Derek for Jackson to stop.

"Jackson, I don't want to go over this again. No one here has ever gone hungry; if we run out of tacos, you can cook plenty of other food for yourself. Every single person here knows how much they generally eat and that much is made. Boyd knew that Stiles was going to be eating more, given how he needs to replenish the issues that his extended magic use can cause in his body. You worry about you, your wife, and your two kids, not my Mate."

"Yes, Alpha."

Stiles didn't even wait for Jackson to move. He left first. If Jackson got to move first, he would bump into Stiles and probably make him drop his food. He had done it before when Derek wasn't around. Stiles didn't understand what was going on. The pack had come together as they had each been affected by the issues that Nemeton was causing in the Preserve. He and Jackson hadn't seen eye to eye for a long time, but Stiles' crush on Lydia had died in a very violent fire when Stiles had met Derek, and therefore Jackson had been nicer to Stiles. Now though, it seemed like they had gone a few steps back. The thing was that it wasn't just Jackson. Boyd was his normal self with Stiles, as was most of the pack. Liam was still a little puppy who followed around behind Stiles. Liam loved learning about magic, even if he couldn't do it. It had saved the pack a few times as well when Stiles wasn't around, and Liam stopped someone from doing something rash that would cause issues.

Erica was fighting Stiles at every single turn, questioning what he suggests even if her stance has no leg to stand on. It was something that Stiles was worried about, really. The pack had never been like this before, even when they had first formed the pack during high school. Isaac wasn't as open about it, but he did little things to undermine Stiles as well. Even Scott had been known to make a few comments here and there about Stiles, and they had been best friends, nearly brothers since they got to know each other better after Stiles had dropped back a grade after his mother had died.

Something was going on with the pack, and Stiles wasn't sure what it was. He sighed and settled down into the chair that he and Derek usually shared when watching movies. When they were eating and not eating at the dining room table, Derek sat on the floor. Stiles behind him were the best place when things were weird.

* * *

Stiles stepped out of the shower to find Derek sitting on the bed in their room. He had been down with the rest of the pack starting another movie when Stiles had come up to head to bed. He was worn out and needed sleep. Stiles stepped up to Derek, letting go of the towel he had around his waist as he stepped into the arms of his Alpha. "What's up?" Stiles asked.

"The alliance meeting with the pack in Arizona has been moved up. We leave soon. Just when I don't know. The Alpha Mate is pregnant, and the Alpha doesn't want a whole bunch of strangers on his land with his wife late in pregnancy."

"Of course, that's understandable. So when do we leave? I need to make sure that Peter and Spencer can cover, and if not, I'll see about Liam."

Stiles knew that Liam only worked when the hospital needed him. He was an emergency nurse but was called in on occasion to deal with an injured Shifter. There were no other nurses on staff in the ER that were Shifters, and sometimes he was needed to help control an injured Shifter. It worked well for Liam, who was one of the ones that helped with the kids in the pack. He was the fun uncle, according to the kids. Liam had kind of found his calling as someone who watched kids. It worked well as that meant that no one had to give up their job to care for them. The kids could be taken into Stiles' shop as well since it was summer, and the few who were of age for the school weren't in at the moment.

"You aren't coming," Derek said.

Stiles reared back and looked at Derek, who was now looking up at him, a challenge in his eyes. He knew that Stiles would be pissed about it, but instead of softening the blow, he tested Stiles to see what he would do. Stiles looked at the bedroom door to see that it was shut. No one was going to be able to hear them.

"Why not?" Stiles asked, keeping his voice low and calm.

"The Herndon's don't like magic users. Their Emissary is a normal human that was born into the pack. If a human is born into the pack and has magic, they are raised and then cast out at eighteen. It's why this negotiation is so very delicate. They don't like that I mated a strong magic-user. So I've had to talk with him about how I could not refuse my Mate even though they had magic. I am hoping to bring back a small delegation to stay here. It's old as hell, but it's normal. Mom did it once with another pack that didn't trust us. They sent their stronger warriors and their strongest magic-user, and they saw how we were. They lived with us for six months, and in the end, one of them stayed with us. It was a young woman who had been raised in that pack, but her family had died in a car accident. She was happy with us until she fell in love with someone from Satomi's pack. Mom easily released her to live there. She's happy there still. I meet with her on occasion. She misses the pack she had."

Stiles nodded as he knew who it was. She came into the shop and did most of the shopping of items for Satomi's pack. She was a wonderful woman. Stiles really liked her.

"So, who is going with you?" Stiles asked.

"Boyd, Cora, and Scott. Peter's staying back due to a few minor issues with a member of the pack. I had to promise not to take him. So I'm taking Cora since he's training her to take his place when he's ready to retire from that position. It's going to be a long trip. I don't know how long we are going to be gone. While I am gone, Peter and you have control of the pack. I'll be telling them as soon as I get the date we are leaving set down. I just didn't want to shock you with it."

"I understand. I'll be going in and doing the consult I should have done today, tomorrow. So I'll be leaving earlier than normal."

"I have a morning shift, so I'll be gone before you get up with how late it is right now."

Derek turned to leave the room, and Stiles realized that while they had gone to the infirmary's outer room, they hadn't left the warded protections against anyone listening in on either side of the room they were in. Derek opened the door, and the sounds of the pack above them filtered to Stiles.

Stiles wondered why everything felt like it was on a knife's edge right now.


	4. Chapter 3

# Chapter 3

### June 2024

The moment that he woke up, Stiles knew that something was wrong. He wasn't sure what it was. He reached out with his sense first. He checked the bedroom; the door was open so he could fully hear everything that was going on. It was breakfast time, so everyone was chatting down below. The scent of food was normal—eggs, bacon, potatoes, and pancakes.

Stiles sat up in bed and wondered what was wrong then. His magic was at peace. He didn't have any issues with that. He frowned as he settled into the bed again. Stiles wasn't going to get up until he figured it out.

Peter's voice was the loudest as he tried to calm whatever squabble was going on. Malia's voice backed up her father's.

Stiles wondered where Boyd was, as he was usually the one to stop the fights between everyone at meals. With Scott right behind him. Stiles counted the heartbeats and attached them to the names they bore. There was no Boyd, no Cora, no Scott, and no Derek. Stiles got up and walked to the window that overlooked where most of the pack parked when they were over. It was a massive carport that had cover. There was a garage where Stiles parked his Jeep, and Peter parked his car. Derek's Camaro was in there while he parked his SUV outside.

The SUV was gone. Derek had left for the Herndon pack meeting without telling Stiles goodbye.

Walking back to the bed, Stiles picked up his phone. There was no message on there from Derek. Derek had told him about the meeting on Sunday, and it was now Wednesday.

Stiles got into the shower with his mind kind of blank. He didn't feel up to heading down to have the rest of the pack see him. He especially didn't want to deal with Jackson at the moment.

When Stiles was done, he slipped out into the bedroom and loaded up a bag of clothes. He would run to the town's edge near where the shop was; it butted close to the Preserve at that end of town. He would be able to shift and change and then come out of there. He walked to work some days when it was warm but not too hot, so no one would think anything of it.

The master bedroom had a balcony, and so when Stiles was ready for the day but still naked after his shower, he walked out to the balcony and dropped his bag down. His phone was protected in there so it would be safe. The bag had been made by Cora for him years ago. He was able to slip into it in fox form, and magic closed the straps. It held everything that he needed, from clothes to a few extra things. He had extra shoes at work, and there was only a pair of shoes that were for running inside. The ones that freaked the pack out when Stiles wore them.

The toes were separated, liked gloves were for hands. The bottom was rubber, and the top was a mesh-like material. They were easy to carry, and Stiles didn't hate them. He liked running in bare feet, but other humans would look at him weirdly for that. It wouldn't help keep that he was a Werefox hidden.

Stiles listened to the house around him before he closed the bedroom door. No one would think anything of that. When he was sure that no one was around, he jumped down from the balcony and landed with grace on the ground below. He changed in the blink of an eye and wiggled under the bag. As soon as he was under it, it began to strap itself to his body. It looked a lot like the kind of thing that a working dog wore but with more pockets and a large bag area at the top instead of just a bit of fabric that went over his back.

There was no one near, so Stiles slipped into the tree line that was thick at the house's back. He was far enough that no one would notice by the time that Stiles was able to slow down. His body wanted to run, and it wanted to run for hours. He didn't have that kind of time, though, so just let loose and darted in and around trees to make himself believe that everything was okay.

Everything was not okay, and he knew it. Normally he was all for ignoring a problem until it went away, but that wasn't going to work in this situation. The Herndon pack didn't sound like the kind of people that they needed to be allied with. Stiles really hoped that no one spoke out of turn about what he was. That was why he always went to meetings like this. Scott was the oddest choice to take. He was hot-headed and sometimes didn't think before he spoke. He hated that his mother's side had turned him into a Shifter.

Scott had not adapted well when he had begun to go through puberty, and his gifts were unlocked. And a gift it was. Stiles had never hated it, even though he had to keep hidden what he was. He loved his magic and would change nothing in the world to not have it. Scott would gladly give away anything and everything to be human. There were times that Stiles was pretty sure that he would kill someone to get it.

If that was the kind of pack that the Herndons were, Stiles wanted nothing to do with them. There were old packs who hadn't changed with the times. They lived and died by old ways that made them isolated in the new world. They hadn't come out of hiding like the rest had when it was all revealed to the world.

Stiles stopped when he heard heartbeats. He found a bush and slipped under it. There were many in the Preserve, planted by him, Peter, or Spencer to make sure that Stiles had places to duck and hide in the Preserve public areas.

It was a small group of teenagers who looked like they were getting ready for Cross Country. Stiles watched them as they goofed off as they were running, one guy making an ass of himself but not a horrible ass. He was just like any other teenager his age. There were no more teenagers in the pack at the moment, but they were just years away from having the kids that had been born early to get to that age. Stiles wasn't looking forward to Jackson and Lydia's kids turning into teenagers.

When the teenagers were far enough away, Stiles headed out again. He got to where he needed to be with a lot of time left, so he ran the edges of the area for a while; he could feel his body warming up in the summer sun, so he stopped and pawed at the strap, triggering the release and getting free.

Stiles dressed quickly, slipping the shoes on, and heading out through the trees. He had a few people look at him, but they looked away with a smile on their faces. They were used to the Sheriff's son living in the Preserve now. It used to shock them when he came out of there for anything, but now it didn't.

There were actual locks on the doors to the shop, but only Peter and Spencer used them. Stiles had magic that unlocked the doors for him. It was keyed to his blood and a spell, so it wasn't nigh impossible for anyone else to get through without both of those. He was sure that brute force would be able to get it all down, but that would tell people they were getting in, and it would destroy most of the shop.

Stiles inhaled deeply as he set about making tea for the day. It was the only part of the shop that needed to be done beforehand. The register was counted down and taken care of at closing but the money left in the drawer. There was no sense in locking it in a safe when the store was as secure as it was. The safe wasn't that hard to break into. One had to be stupid to break into the shop of a magic-user, especially when said magic-user was the son of the Sheriff.

Turning on music, Stiles

The closer it got to opening time, the more relaxed Stiles became. He could do this part. He could be the person who ran the shop. Be the sarcastic asshole who had thrown more than one person out of the shop. No one fought him on that shit, not after the first guy who had thrown a rock through the window after being thrown out had walked around with the word asshole wrote on his forehead for weeks. He apologized, paid the fine for vandalism, did his community service, and was a model person at every shop in the town.

"Stiles," Spencer said as he came into the shop through the open front door.

Stiles looked up and realized that the shop had been open for an hour. He wondered how he had passed the time so much. He looked down to see that he had eight receipts that he really didn't remember doing. In front of him was a sheet of paper with a bunch of different runes on it.

"Stiles, did you eat breakfast?"

"Uh, yeah. I had some stuff delivered. Why?" Stiles looked at his cup beside the register from the coffee shop down the street that would make deliveries to all businesses within walking distance for free. He could taste bread in his mouth, so he had eaten something from there as well. He had no memories, and that was never good.

"Peter texted me that you didn't eat breakfast with the pack," Spencer said. He dropped down to sit beside Stiles.

"You smell like sex; I don't like it," Stiles whined.

"I've been having sex for like six years," Spencer said.

"I know, but you've never smelled like sex this much. I dislike Ashley. He's dishonoring you," Stiles said.

"You are worse than Derek." Spencer was laughing, though. He leaned into Stiles and scented him even though he couldn't actually smell it.

Stiles pulled him into a hug.

"What time did Derek leave?" Spencer asked when he finally popped up and headed over to get tea for both of them. He came back with a glass of iced tea for Stiles and a room temp tea for him.

Stiles looked at the glass and picked it up to take a sip. It tasted so good, so he just kept on drinking it until it was gone.

"Okay, I guess I should have asked if you have drunk anything today. I'll get more." Spencer snagged the mostly empty glass from Stiles and refilled it. He came back over and sat down again. "You didn't answer me."

"I know."

"You only do that kind of stuff when you are trying not to hurt my feelings. What about Derek leaving would hurt my feelings."

Stiles looked at his tea, watching the ice swirl around.

"And if I asked you to leave it alone?" Stiles asked.

"I would tell you that I am an adult. I'm twenty-six years old, and I know that not all relationships are always happy, Stiles."

"Everything with Derek and I is fine."

"Really? Then what time did he leave?" Spencer asked.

"You are my least favorite Hale." Stiles got up and walked over to where he needed to fix a few books. It seemed he had sold a few and needed to restock or at least move things around to make it look fuller. He needed to see what he had in the back for the section.

"Stiles, you can't ignore this," Spencer said.

"What the hell do you care so much about it? Ask your fucking brother!" Stiles yelled before he stormed into the back.

The room was closing in as he leaned over his desk in the small office he used for meetings sometimes. He pressed his hands into the edge, the pain helping him settle down some. He heard his office door opened, and the scent of Peter filled him.

"Stiles, calm down; you are scratching your desk."

"I yelled at Spencer," Stiles said.

"Yes, you did. Everyone has yelled at Spencer at some point and then felt like they kicked a puppy. He has that look when you yell at him. Right now, he feels like he was in the wrong. I agree that he should have let you go to him. Now, he tells me that you refuse to tell him when Derek left. Why?"

"Because if I start on that path, I'm not gonna be in a good mood for the rest of the day. I need a good head on my shoulders. I need to work."

"And we both have the front; your work today is working on the wards that you need. You can be back here and drink your weight in tea and pee like a racehorse and just take it all out on your magic. So tell me, when did Derek leave?"

"Let's go out there. I'll tell both of you."

"Fine. I will be feeding you when it's lunchtime. You will eat what I give you, and for everything you fight me on, you will get more food."

"No, I was wrong; you are my least favorite Hale." Stiles pushed past Peter into the main area.

Spencer was at the front desk with a book open in front of him. He looked up when Stiles got close.

"I don't know what time he left."

"Ah, he woke you up, and you didn't look at the time?" Spencer asked.

"No. I didn't know that he was leaving, and I don't know what time he left."

"He said he told you," Peter said.

"He said he would be going to Arizona, but he said he didn't know when. That was Sunday. I didn't know he was leaving today."

"He told us all last night," Spencer said.

"What?" Stiles asked.

"We had a pack meeting that didn't have you or a few others since you were all working. He told us that they would be leaving in the morning, but Cora texted me that they were gone before dawn." Spencer looked confused, and he looked at Peter.

Stiles felt gutted. He had no idea. It wasn't strange for there to be small pack meetings where Stiles was closing the shop. Derek always told him what was going on, though, usually when he got home. Stiles had eaten at the shop and then headed to bed pretty much as soon as he got home, worn out from magic use. It wasn't that strange, really. If he had a late day in, he went home to bed. He had spent the morning making a few things in the basement for the pack humans.

"This is not good," Spencer said.

"There is a lot of Derek going to Arizona that is not good. I would say that Derek left without talking to you because of me pissing him off."

"Why?"

"I told him, and I've told him for months that the Herndons don't have the best interests of our pack at all. The Alpha Mate has it in for me."

"Why?" Spencer asked.

"We dated just after I graduated high school and before college. She had grown up here. She lived on the edge of the Hale Pack here, and we had danced around each other in high school, but I refused to step up. She wanted to be the Mate of an Alpha. I didn't want that. I like my shadows and deals done in the dark. I'm not made to be an Alpha, and I don't want it. She fled down the state and married the first Alpha that would have her. She's cruel and hates humans. She's from a family that holds all members the same, and humans are at the same level. The Alpha is the one who hates magic users. His mother left his father because he was abusive, and she took up with a magic-user. He stayed with the father, and the other kids went with their mother."

"And so he blames the magic-user instead of the fact that his father beat his mother," Stiles said.

"Yes."

"They are never going to accept the pack with me as Derek's Mate."

"No, and I told him that. Derek thinks he can woo them into liking us."

"Beacon Hills is surrounded by magic. It's in everyone. They only shift because of magic....how do they protect their lands?"

"It's small, and they hold all high appointments. The city grew around them over the years, and they just kind of brute-forced all over. They know everyone who enters, and they watch them. So far, they haven't killed any, but there is a reason that they don't have a lot of allies this far up."

"I can understand why. Why does Derek want them that hard?" Stiles asked. He looked at Spencer to see that he looked a little lost. He was kept mostly out of a lot of pack things like this, on his own. He didn't want the drama of it all. He listened when it was needed, but he ignored the rest. Peter had told Stiles it was normal for most humans in pack and even some other Shifter members. Stiles hadn't known, but he trusted Peter.

"I haven't figured that out. Since he first brought it up, I've been working on trying to figure it out. My contacts give me nothing. It's nothing on the Herndon side; they haven't been putting out a lot of feelers. It's mostly on Derek's side. I am not even sure how he found out about them."

"What does someone that far away give us?" Spencer asked.

"Help when needed on larger scale things and warning. They would listen in their area for things heard. No one will talk about attacking us close to home, but lips get looser the further away one gets," Stiles said.

Peter looked proud. Stiles let that feeling wash over him. He wasn't sure what the hell was going on. A week ago, life had been good. He had been happy, and now it was like he was seeing a lot of little things coming together to fuck everything up.

"So Derek didn't even wake you up, did he?" Spencer asked.

"No, he didn't." Stiles reached over for his phone and pressed the button to turn it on. "And he still hasn't texted me."

"How do you want to play it out?" Peter asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you can rake him over the coals, or you can just ignore him. I think you've been doing too much of the first."

"So, I should ignore him?"

"No, ignore how he left. Text him about something innocuous and see what he does. He's a long way away at this point in time. I want to know where my Nephew's head is at because it's not thinking about you first."

"He needs to think of the pack first," Stiles said.

Peter looked at Stiles like he had just told him that he liked to shake babies. "Siding with magic hating people is not thinking of the pack first. We have seven people who have magic in this pack. That means that six other people besides you are going to be treated like shit when they are around. You are the heart of the pack, Stiles. It won't take long at all for people to start to feel like they need to defend you. Your magic has saved this area many times, not to mention the lives of the pack members. They will hit a point where treating you like shit will make them want to defend you."

"It's not like we are going to be hosting them for any period of time."

Peter gave Stiles a look that said he was an idiot.

"This is an old pack, Stiles," Spencer said. He looked at Peter and then got a nod. "Derek and those he took with them will stay there for a while, letting that pack see how they are, and then a delegation will come back here and do the same thing. They have up to three months that they can stay with us before the Alpha has to make a decision."

"And since our Alpha went down, the Alpha will come up?" Stiles asked. He hadn't studied that part of the pack history as it hadn't been anything that the packs did. He really needed to though now. He would need to make sure that he was ready.

"He will probably send his Alpha Mate. He's not the kind that trusts his Mate to run things while he is off somewhere else. Last time he was near mortally injured when something attacked them, he ruled from his bedside."

"So that bitch will be coming here?" Stiles asked.

"Yes," Peter said.

"I want those books. I want to know everything about what to expect."

"Of course," Peter said. He turned his head and focused on the door.

Stiles focused all of his senses that way as well. He heard someone getting close. There was a visitor to the shop with the way they were walking.

"Put that stuff away," Spencer said, pushing at the papers.

"Spencer, go and get us something to eat; Stiles is hungry," Peter said.

Stiles stuck his tongue out at Peter just as the door opened. He looked, and the sun was shining behind, kind of blocking Stiles' view of his face, but he could see enough of the clothes to know who it was. "Adam, welcome back to Beacon Hills."

"Thanks. I've not been to the Hale house yet. Your Alpha called me last night to tell me to come here since this was where I needed to check-in since he was out of town." Adam shut the door and stepped toward Stiles.

Stiles tried to not let the hurt cross over his face. Derek had called Adam to tell him to come here with Stiles or at least Peter since they were the pack's ranking members that were left. Yet, he couldn't even tell Stiles when he had gotten into bed the night before, waking up Stiles so that they could cuddle. He didn't even wake up Stiles to tell him this morning. He hadn't told Stiles at all. Yet, this visiting Hunter from another pack was allowed to know that he was leaving.

"Welcome back to Beacon Hills," Stiles said.

Adam's smile dimmed a little, and he looked at Peter, who shook his head. Adam nodded and then focused on Stiles again. "I have a few presents for you, Stiles, as well as one for Spencer. Am I allowed to give it to him?"

"Of course," Stiles said. He waved his hand toward Spencer, and the young man looked like he was seven, and it was Christmas.

Adam shrugged his backpack off of his shoulders and pulled out a small box. He set that down on the countertop closer to where Stiles was. Out came a few books next and then a small stack of eight books that were commercial and unlike the ones that he had taken out first. Stiles tipped his head to the side and laughed when he caught the name of the first book.

"Oh, my Luna!" Spencer said as he grabbed the eight books and pulled them close to hug them. He grinned at Adam. "Thank your Matriarch for me, please."

"I will. Now no one can take them from you since Stiles and Peter are the only ones who can read Polish."

"I need to go read." Spencer dashed over to the sitting area and dropped into Stiles' chair before he curled up with the first book.

"You know that you didn't have to do that," Stiles said.

"Celeste heard him complaining last time about how people keep taking his copy of The Last Wish. Now they have no reason to do it. I heard him say it was the principle of the matter and that he didn't want to buy another copy just to be able to read it."

"Well, Peter and I will wait until he's done with each one," Stiles said.

"That's good. Your books are a bit drier. Some older books that we've acquired another copy of that your Aunt thought that you would like as well as more of that herb that you said your one customer likes in her tea."

"Thank you. It's a gift?"

"Well, yes. We don't have much use for it, but we can buy it very, very cheap. Your Aunt sees it as currying favor with the Alpha Mate. Your Alpha said you had a place I could stay?"

"Not staying in a hotel this time around?"

"I'm gonna be here for a while, and the house that Celeste owns here is under a renovation after the idiot neighbor set it on fire."

"Oh, that's the house that she owns? Damn, yeah. Dad and Derek bitched about that for days. Come on, you can stay above the shop. There is outside access, and inside access, I will warn you that the wards I have for the shop start with pain and end with dismemberment."

"Yes, Celeste told me how strong the wards are for those who are magically inclined. And heading into the apartment from the outside won't set those off?"

"Not with the key. Peter and Spencer have keys to this place that disrupt the wards, but only in their hands."

"The wards here are great. I can feel them, but they don't attack even as I get closer."

"They would if you touched the front door after hours. It took a long time to get the wards right. So what are you in town for?" Stiles asked.

"Your Alpha didn't tell you?"

"You can call him Derek, Calavera," Peter said.

"Sure, whatever." Adam focused his attention on Stiles with that. "He asked for Celeste to send someone to help backup the area with everything going on, even before he went down to Arizona to meet with whatever pack he's meeting."

"Herndon," Peter said.

If Adam had a What the Fuck face, this was it, Stiles thought. Adam's face did a few complicated things, and then he was just settled on pissed off. "Does your Alpha not remember that I have magic as well, and it's well known?"

"He wants you to stay that long?"

"Well, given what I know about Herndon, he's scared as hell of Celeste, so I would assume that Derek wants that intimidation factor. He also has had a few issues with my biological family and his skirting lines that he shouldn't even be glancing at. I half feel like having Helena join me, but she would fan the flames more than anything. This is a clusterfuck and a half. I need food to deal with this."

"Spencer was going to go and get food, but it looks like that falls to me. Do not leave this shop, Adam."

"I won't," Adam said.

"You can go and drop your stuff quickly," Stiles said. He opened the register and grabbed the key to the apartment above. The pack liked to use it when they were in a fight with their other half. Stiles and Derek had never gone to bed mad at each other, or at least he thought so. There were others, though, who fought and fucked like they were breathing."

"Jackson was the last to use it when Lydia pissed him off. It might be a wreck. I have no clue."

"I can do light maintenance and such. I'll let you know. Right now, I am just dropping this. I parked at the station and walked here. Your father knows I dropped it off as I saw Parrish outside of the station. He waved like he knew who I was but not my name. He saw the tattoo so.

"Dad's not an idiot. I told him you were coming. He'll know it's you."

"Breakfast or lunch?" Peter asked Stiles.

"Breakfast," Stiles answered.

Peter looked at Adam next.

"Breakfast is fine with me."

"PANCAKES!" Spencer yelled.

"Fucking child," Peter said.

"Love you too. Uncle!" Spencer waved without even looking up from his book.

"That kid," Adam said.

"He's the baby of the family, so he's indulged, but at least he hasn't let it go to his head." Stiles looked at his hands to see that he had been shredding stuff again. He sighed and leaned back. He did that kind of thing when he was upset.

Adam headed up to the apartment. Stiles could hear him looking around. It was a simple place with a good-sized kitchen, a large living room with a table in it for eating, and an okay-sized bedroom. The bathrooms were good enough for Stiles, Peter, and Spencer to use. Stiles had stayed overnight before when he had worn himself out and was unable to head home if Derek was working a nightshift. Adam took his time, so Stiles focused on the shop. He should be doing something meaningful, but he was upset, and when he was upset like this, he tended to fuck up his magic. He grabbed his cup from before, draining what was left of his tea before heading over to get more.

Another pot needed to be brewed since the three of them were drinking it like crazy. He worked on that while listening for the door. The shop smelled normal, but the smell of Adam in the space, which was just going to grow as he stayed there longer. Stiles had never let someone who wasn't pack stay there. But Adam wasn't a normal kind of person from another pack. He was family in a very extended way, even though Stiles had never met him until a few years ago. He knew that his Aunt had taken him in as a foster kid after he fled his family in Mexico. She hadn't outright adopted him like she had Helena, who Stiles wasn't even sure what her previous last name was. Adam was one of the best Hunters that Celeste had, and Stiles knew that. He wondered why she had given him up to stick him here. He knew the biggest reason, but he couldn't understand how he was in danger. Celeste would burn the world down for Stiles, the only child of her sister. Despite their parents divorcing and Claudia moving here with her father, the girls stayed as close as they could with the distance between them; as technology had gotten better, they kept in touch more.

Stiles was all that Celeste had left of her sister. She would do what she could, and Adam was better than sending Robbie. Adam came back down quickly, looking the same as he had.

Adam didn't move from behind the counter. "If you want to run around, I can watch over the shop while Peter's gone. I will make sure that nothing happens with Spencer."

"Do I look like I'm dressed to run?" Stiles asked.

"I meant in your fur."


	5. Chapter 4

# Chapter 4

<3>June 2024

Stiles knew that he was staring, but there was nothing else for him to do. He heard Spencer getting up, and he walked over to step between Stiles and Adam.

"Hey, stop growling; I am not a threat," Adam said as he held up his hands. "I thought you knew that I knew."

"How do you know?" Stiles asked. He moved as quickly as he could, snagging Adam around the throat and pushing him into the wall. "Who told you?"

"Stiles, please," Adam begged.

Stiles felt a few of his claws pierced skin, but he didn't care. His life depended on knowing who had the knowledge to ruin him. No one outside of the pack should know.

"Tell me now, or I will kill you."

Adam looked scared, he looked like he was about to pass out, but Stiles didn't let him go. He didn't stop. He just held on just the same.

"Stiles, drop him," Peter called out. "You've revealed yourself to him."

"He knew already," Spencer said.

"What?" Peter demanded.

"Mieczysław," Adam said.

"You think that will save you?" Stiles demanded. "Tell me who knows."

"The entire Gajos pack and family," Noah said.

The shock of hearing his father had Stiles dropping Adam and turning to look at him.

"Spencer called me afraid you were going to kill him. I was already on my way here with Peter."

"You weren't gone long," Stiles said.

"Sweetheart, I was gone over twenty minutes. Now step back from him and put those claws away before someone else comes inside.

Adam moved over to stand beside Peter, even though everyone in the room knew that Peter would kill him without hesitating if he proved to be a threat to Stiles.

"How do they know?" Stiles asked.

"I just found out. Celeste called me, and that was why I was coming here. She wanted to know why Derek was going to meet with the Herndon pack. Celeste does not think you are going to be safe when they come back here, no matter who comes with them. She's known since you were born, it seems, but it became a thing to never speak about it."

"We have two Werefoxes in the pack," Adam said. He rubbed at his neck, grimacing at the blood a little.

Stiles walked over to the shelf that held the supplies they used on themselves. Especially for Spencer, who got paper cuts if he looked at the paper. He grabbed a tub of some stuff that he could apply, and it would help heal Adam's throat in the day, even the bruises.

"Sorry," Stiles said.

"It's okay. I should have known that you might not know that I know. I can see why it would be kept a secret from everyone. It's fine. Just...don't freak out again, okay. You looked fucking scary."

"He does when he's pissed, and his eyes glow. His melanistic fur doesn't help either. He's beautiful when he's fully shifted." Peter's tone was just like when he complimented any of his nephews or niece, but there was always something about it for Stiles that made him feel like someone was seeing him for the first time ever.

"I've never seen fur do that before. It's a kind of...standard for colors."

"Yes, he's quite the pretty little thing."

"Go away, Uncle Creeper," Stiles said. It helped him calm down, and he knew it was why Peter had done it.

"No way. You are going to go up with your father and Adam and talk while Spencer reads in the corner, and I handle the shop. Here’s food for the three of you." Peter handed a bag to Noah and then all but shoved him toward where Stiles was.

Stiles waved for Adam to go first. He didn't want to be in front of him. Noah quickly got between them as well. Stiles just glared at the back of his father's head.

The apartment wasn't nearly as bad off as Stiles thought it was. He found that the fridge was still plugged in with condiments in it. The freezer was full of quick-to-make freezer meals from the store. It looked like a bachelor pad, especially with the counter full of alcohol. A few had a purple flower stuck on top, so Stiles knew that those were for the Shifters in the group while the rest were for the humans.

"You've never said anything; why?" Stiles asked.

"I never knew who knew so I just kept my mouth shut. I'm not fully family, which means if I piss you off, it's not good. Though I guess I did that anyway. Your Aunt never said it was a full secret from the rest of the pack, but I never knew who knew. You've never shown any shifts like that. You have a few members that shift at the sound of a bit of breaking glass or a loud noise. You never shifted. I know that McCall hates being a shifter, so I wasn't sure if that was you as well. Then I saw your shoes. We have a few guys who have those because they are easy to carry when they are traveling in their fur."

"Yeah, I love them. I have tennis shoes here, but I'm having a bad morning, and that means that I just kind of spaced through working."

"At least you weren't driving this time," Noah said as he dropped down onto the couch. He waved for Adam to sit and Stiles stayed standing. He didn't want to sit down. He wanted to run again. He wasn't sure if he wanted to stop running.

"There is a story there, but first, I need to talk about everything else. Your Aunt is worried about Arizona. She's just glad you didn't go."

"I'm worried about Arizona too. I'm worried about a lot of things." Stiles looked at his father and sighed.

"What's wrong?" Noah asked. He looked at Stiles and then Adam before looking back at Stiles with a raised eyebrow.

"You know what, he's never gonna do a damned thing to harm anyone that I love. Derek left without telling me."

"Ah hell, Son," Noah said.

"It's why I ran to work today. I just kind of want to take off running and not come back for a few days, but the pack needs me."

"Do they?" Noah asked.

Stiles looked at his father. He wasn't sure what the man meant. Stiles' phone went off before he could respond. He looked at the text.

"Well, Peter says that he can handle the pack for a day if I wanted to just live in my fur. I'll talk to the person I am working on wards for and let her know things are going, and it will delay me."

"Anything I can help with? I can look at your notes. I'm here to help the Hale Pack with anything that is needed. I can look and map, and you can look at it later. It's easier, most of the time, to fix a runic array than build it."

"That sounds good. Sure. I'll get the papers, and then I'll just head out into the trees and play around. I'm sure I can find a few animals to play chase with."

Noah snorted and stood up. He walked over to Stiles to hug him tightly. Stiles soaked it up. He enjoyed his father's hugs. He had never grown out of the phase where he wanted them all the time. For a long while, Stiles had thought that he would, but he never did. Which his father thought was a good thing.

He kind of wished that he had never grown out of a lot of things.

* * *

The Hale house was kind of silent when Stiles ran up to it. He was still in his fox form and saw that Kira and Allison were sitting on the front porch. He wasn't sure what to do. He didn't want to be seen by anyone, but they weren't the worst that he could be seen by.

"Where is Stilinski?" Jackson demanded.

"Jackson, calm down. Peter said he was busy."

"He's worthless as Alpha when Derek is gone," Jackson said.

"No, he's not worthless," Allison said as she stood up.

Stiles stayed where he was, hoping that no light shone over his body. His eyes would reflect, and they would know he was there.

"What do you need? Kira asked.

"I need an actual Alpha," Jackson said.

"Well, until Stiles is done with his work, you'll have to deal with me, which is what Erica told you," Peter said from the doorway.

"Where is his worthless ass?" Jackson demanded.

Peter let out a low growl, which was the only warning that Jackson got before he was going back over the banister. Peter jumped up and over, landing with Jackson on the ground in between his legs. Peter was fully in Beta shift and growling.

Jackson let out a whimper of fear.

"I've told you time and again that you will not call him that in my hearing, and you've called him that all evening. Do you call Derek worthless when he's working?"

"He at least is doing something more than just sitting and playing with pictures."

"That boy brings in more income to the pack than anyone else besides myself if you count the money management that I do while helping Stiles run his shop. He pays for every car that everyone else drives but keeps a Jeep that is older than him because it was his mother's. You haven't even gotten a raise at your job in three years because you ride on the coattails of your father's name on the firm's side. You take cases when you want. If we started to decide who was the most worthless pack member, you would be at the top."

Peter dropped to his knees, his hand pressing to Jackson's chest and his claws dug in. Jackson screamed in pain.

"You don't help any pack member. You barely raise your children with your wife, who also brings in more money than you. You never cook, clean, or help when we set up anything pack-relatedpack. Stiles is worth a thousand of you. If I do nothing else before Derek gets back, it's going to be that. You'll stop looking down at the one person in the pack that actually cares for your ass besides your wife. He would give his life for you today with no questions asked because you are family to him."

"He wouldn't do shit for me," Jackson said.

"And that speaks to what you think more than what the truth is. He nearly killed himself for Brock, and Brock had been in the pack a month when that Harpy attacked. So don't even. He cared more about a newbie's life than his own. Derek was pissed for a week at him. You remember the epic pout our Alpha had, didn't you? He was unbearable until Stiles begged enough for Derek to forgive him."

"Little bitch just rolled over and let Derek mount him," Jackson snarled.

Stiles wasn't shocked by the words or by what Peter did. He raked his hand down Jackson's chest.

"Go ahead home and don't come back. If I even get a single whiff of you while Derek is gone, I'll kill you and make sure that no one knows it's me. Your wife and kids will find your body in pieces across the Preserve. I know how to make animals attack."

Peter stood up and shoved at Jackson with his foot as he did. Jackson took off at a run since his house wasn't that far away. Peter looked at the house when Jackson was in the trees.

"That goes for anyone else here. The way that I see it, anyone who doesn't want to take orders from Stiles can fuck off until Derek comes back, and I'll make sure that he knows exactly what happened and why."

Stiles would have felt bad about the small group that left, but he didn't. He worried more about himself because he hadn't realized that so much of the pack saw him as just the hole their Alpha fucked. Stiles kind of wanted to take off into the woods and not come back, but he wasn't going to give them all the satisfaction.

Peter's anger was going to be something that was going to simmer for a long time. Peter was the one that controlled all money that came out of the pack funds.

When all of the pack members that were leaving had left, Stiles trotted out to stand in front of Peter.

"Let's get inside, Stiles; Spencer is waiting on you."

Stiles looked back at Peter with an eyebrow cocked at him. Peter just grinned and waved for Stiles to go inside. Stiles headed up but stopped when he saw Allison and Kira looking at him. Stiles grinned and headed to where they were. He trotted close to Allison first, and she scratched his head. Kira was making the same cooing noises that she did for everyone who was around her in full shift form. Stiles didn't do it often unless he was with Derek. He didn't like to live in his fur on full moons like most of the pack did. He didn't fault them for it; he just liked his human skin a little better.

Kira petted Stiles like he was a dog, but that was okay because many of the pack liked it. Stiles walked away from them and headed inside. He found Spencer's scent and followed it up into Spencer's bedroom. Spencer wasn't alone; Ashley was in there. Stiles looked for clothes, but he didn't see any. He really hoped that Ashley had been told who he was before this. He was okay with Ashley knowing about him; he trusted Ashley. Ashley was so deep in love with Spencer that he would never give up a damned thing that would hurt him, and giving up Stiles would.

"Nope, you don't get to come out of this for a little while. Peter's cooking some food for you, and it'll be ready just about when we are done."

Stiles wasn't sure what the hell Spencer was talking about as he looked around more. Before he could do a damned thing, Ashley was picking him up and carrying him into the bathroom. He was inside with the door shut before Stiles could react. He growled when he realized what was going to happen.

"Look, it's freaky if I gave you a massage and shit as a human. I can do that in this form, though. Let me please. Ashley is just going to be grabbing me things as we go. He won't touch you unless he asks first, well, after grabbing you."

Ashley sat down in front of the bathroom door, blocking Stiles from being able to get out. Every door in the house had handles that could be used by paws and not hands. With Ashley there, though, he couldn't. Stiles looked at where Spencer was getting a bath ready. He was kind of excited about it. He trotted over to Ashley and nosed at his book. Ashley dropped it and looked at him with a smile on his face.

"You are really adorable. I love melanistic fur. Next full moon, we can run. I bought that acreage of the forest with the money I got from my grandparents when they died when I was a kid. We can all three go running. Maybe talk Peter and that guy that's on you that smells like cookies."

"I think it's the guy from the Gajos pack," Spencer said as he settled on the base of the tub.

Stiles rubbed against Ashley's hand. The young man was perfect for Spencer; he was part of a pack but so distant that he would gladly join the Hale Pack if Derek asked. Stiles still wasn't sure why he hadn't asked yet, but then again, Cora's boyfriend hadn't been asked either. Stiles let himself get a little love from Ashley before heading over to the tub and climbing in. It had been a few years since Derek had done something like this for him. He had last done it when Stiles had gotten blood and mud all over him after taking down a pack of Omegas who were trying to kill Derek. Stiles had ended up ripping the last Omega's throat out when he tried to take Derek down.

The water that was in the bottom of the tub was just the perfect temperature for Stiles, a little hotter than most liked, but Stiles loved it.

"Fox Shifters are just a myth back home," Ashley said.

Stiles looked up over the tub as Spencer used the soft spray to get his fur soaked. He knew that Spencer would never feel anything like this, but he loved the feel of fingers through his fur. He closed his eyes.

"There was a rumor of one in the woods, a fox that smelled like magic. I recognized the smell of you the first time I met you. So yeah, we have a feral Fox Shifter in the woods back in Ohio. It was quite a hit to me. When I went home, I tried to find him, but I couldn't get close enough to a good scent that I could follow him on."

"Fox Shifters can use magic; they can touch Mountain Ash. They have been made slaves for a long time. There are those that have been tortured to feral, which I would assume is like the guy you have in the backwoods of Ohio. I was twelve when Derek met Stiles. We had come home after years away, and we all wanted to come. Laura wasn't going to come alone, we still lost her. We gained Stiles, which wasn't anywhere near a good swap. I hated him for a while. Derek hadn't been able to save Laura, but when I got too horrible with Stiles, Uncle Peter sat me down and explained what had happened that night. There wasn't much that could be done to save Laura, and I can't fault Derek for protecting Stiles after Laura died. There was no reason to lose him, as well."

"No, there wasn't. So that's it, they can use magic unlike the rest of us and can even manipulate Mountain Ash."

"For Hunters, it's something they don't want. A pack with a Werefox is a pack that can get out of most of their traps. For other packs, it makes it hard to take them down. As much as we would love to say that Shifters are a paragon of virtue, we are not. We have the same flaws as humans," Spencer said. He began to work Stiles' fur into a lather with the shampoo on it.

There wasn't a lot of chatter as Spencer cleaned Stiles up, his Fox fur wasn't that dirty, but it still felt good. Stiles didn't go looking for mud puddles to run through like some of the pack. Stiles liked to be clean. He liked to not have to clean up a lot when he shifted back to skin.

"So the pack never tells anyone," Ashley said.

"Yeah, you finding out was a big accident because Stiles is a little raw right now, and when he gets like that, he likes to run in the Preserve."

Stiles turned his head to look at Spencer and then Ashley.

"He saw you playing today in the Preserve, and you were so focused on what you were doing that he got close enough to smell you. He knew exactly who you were, and he came to me. I went to Peter. Peter said it was fine since Ashley is with me. There was a threat to taking that knowledge away if Ashley and I break up. So I don't even really want to know about that. I trust him, though, please."

Stiles licked up the side of Spencer's face and nodded at Ashley. He trusted him. Trust was hard with Stiles, but when he did it, he trusted wholeheartedly. He was happy with Ashley knowing. It meant that it was a secret that Spencer didn't have to keep from him. Ashley was good for Spencer. He had been raised by his grandparents after his mother and father died when he was five. Then they died when he was a teenager. He had been shipped across the country to Beacon City by his Aunt from Ohio to finish raising him. They had met by accident in a coffee shop in Beacon Hills on their birthday, including the year. They had started to talk about that when they figured out they had the same day as their birthday. That had been Spencer's senior year of college, and he had been home for his birthday for the weekend.

When Spencer had gone back to Berkeley for his last few months, he had texted with Ashley, and they had been dating before he had graduated. Stiles had been happy about it since Ashley was from a pack, the pack was small as hell, but he at least understood. A good chunk of humans never understood the drives that even human pack members had. Ashley was good for him too. He supported Spencer through everything. If Stiles had to pick someone for him, Ashley would be the one. Stiles also thought that maybe they were Mates, but they didn't bring it up. Stiles wouldn't be shocked. They never told anyone.

Stiles let his mind kind of slip away as he enjoyed the bath that he was getting. It had been something that had taken a while for Stiles to get used to; Derek used to love to do it. He would take any reason to give Stiles a bath, in his fur, or in his skin. It hadn't really happened in a while.

"Hey, Ashley, go get the bed ready. Shut the outer door and lock it. The door won't open for anyone outside except for Peter once you do. Also maybe...fur?" Spencer asked.

"Sure. I'll get myself ready for bed as well."

Stiles realized that he was being rinsed off. The bath portion was over since the water was drained from the tub. The water wasn't nearly as dirty as Stiles thought that it would be. He was happy about that, but he really liked the feel of Spencer's fingers on him.

"Okay, out and onto the towel. It's drying you off time," Spencer said.

Stiles carefully climbed out of the tub, and as soon as he was on his four feet, Spencer threw a towel over him. Stiles barked out a bit of laughter. Spencer had been around the pack enough to know that he was totally going to shake his body to spray him.

"I don't know what's going on, Stiles, but I promise that you are not alone. You have me. I know that Derek is my brother, but being blood doesn't mean that you can't disagree with what they are doing. I don't know why he thinks that he needs that pack in Arizona, but I won't stand by him hurting you."

Stiles didn't react to the words of any of the ones that fell out of his mouth as Spencer talked. It was just enough to help keep Stiles calm, but he really hated that sides were being drawn in something that had come to a head while Derek wasn't home. Stiles wanted to touch his neck, trace the bite mark that was there, but he couldn't. The magic was there, and he could feel it if concentrated enough, but it was just something that felt wrong to not be able to trace with his fingers.

The blow dryer was warm when Spencer turned it on, brushing out Stiles' fur as he made sure that it was fully dry. No one wanted a wet fox in their bed. Stiles enjoyed the feel of the warmth over him as Spencer moved from head to tail with it and the brush. Then it was time to head into the bedroom. Ashley was on the far side of the bed, sitting on top of it in a pair of sleep pants and a tank top. He was kind of beautiful. Stiles had realized that about him from the first picture that Spencer had shown him. The way that the low light in the room made his dark skin shine just added to it.

"Up on the bed while I get changed," Spencer said.

Stiles jumped up and stayed on the opposite side of the bed from where Ashley was so that the couple could cuddle. He didn't want to come in-between that. The sound of Spencer cleaning up the bathroom and then changing made Stiles feel less like he was alone, even if that wasn't Derek there. He didn't like it, Derek being so far away and he hadn't texted yet. Stiles had texted him an update that Adam had arrived, but Derek hadn't responded to the last that Stiles knew. His phone was with either Peter or Spencer, so he wasn't sure about that.

The bedroom door opening had Stiles growling.

"Well, someone is feeling territorial. I was just bringing you your phone. Your father texted, and I replied to tell him you were still in your fur."

Stiles looked at Peter with a question on his face.

"Derek has not texted back," Peter said. The scent off of him was mostly pissed off, but there was something else that was growing larger, and that was sadness. When Peter reached out to pet him on the head after dropping Stiles' phone to the nightstand, Stiles turned his head to lick as he retreated. Peter chuckled and reached out again. "You three get some sleep."

* * *

Stiles stretched and found that he was warm. He sighed as he settled down again. He was still in his fur; he knew that because Spencer had one of his hands tangled in Stiles' fur. The bedroom door was open, so someone must have opened it at some point. Stiles could hear the sounds down in the kitchen coming up. There wasn't the fast beating sound of Jackson's anger, though, which made it a good morning. He could hear Jackson's kids talking, and the smell of Lydia was filling up the space. Stiles turned around, getting his fur free of Spencer's hand as he wiggled down the bed and out from under the bottom. Ashley wasn't in bed, so Sties assumed that it was him that had opened the door. He must have kept it open so he could hear Spencer waking up.

His bedroom door was open, so Stiles slipped inside before heading toward the dresser to grab clothes. He shifted back to skin and slipped a pair of boxers on before grabbing a T-shirt. He looked at the pile of Derek's in the drawer as well but grabbed one of his own. He found his softest pair of sleep pants. He then grabbed the schedule for the day for the shop. He had no consults, and the people who were picking up orders had already paid. He could have the shop next door hand them out. He had done that before. He hoped that Peter was okay heading over to take care of that. He didn't want to leave the Hale house at the moment. Even if the people here only seemed to tolerate him for their Alpha's sake. He wished he could go back to a week ago where he thought it was just Jackson. He wouldn't be able to go back to that, though. His life was changed, and he wasn't sure what to do with it.

The kitchen had a few of the pack sitting around. Malia was sitting and drinking a cup of coffee with her second already sitting in front of her. She looked up at Stiles and smiled at him. Stiles went to get a cup but found that the pot was still brewing. He sighed. At least someone had started another pot. It had happened before where no one did, thinking that it was Stiles' job. Stiles still wasn't sure where most of the pack had got the idea that because he was Alpha Mate, he was their slave. It had predated the stupid book that Jackson had talked about. Still, it was enough that it nearly made Stiles want to kick Adam out of the apartment and stay there himself. It wouldn't do him any good, though, as he would just be stuck at work then.

"Here," Malia said, and she scooted over the cup that was in front of her.

Stiles took it and was prepared to push past the creamer that she put in when he saw that it was black. He took a sip and found that it was just right for him. She had made him a cup of coffee instead of having the second ready for her. She was rather like Peter in that. He usually did the same thing. "Thanks."

"Welcome. Fruit salad is in the fridge. Dad was up early to deal with something, so he made up a lot of fruit salad. When I'm awake enough, I'm gonna work on breakfast, snack on fruit for a little while."

"Cool." Stiles looked at Lydia, who was looking at him.

"Shouldn't you be on your way to work?" Stiles asked.

"I will go in late. Jackson told me what happened last night, so I called Allison since I knew that she would be here last night, given she had gotten too tipsy to drive. I want to say that I know what you do for this pack, both financially and magically. His ideas are not mine. I thought it was just him acting out over being passed over for another promotion at work, but I think it's rooted deeper than that. I came by to warn you to not be alone with him anywhere."

Stiles raised his eyebrows at that. He saw Malia texting someone; he assumed her father wherever Peter was. If Stiles was facing a threat from the pack, it wouldn't go over well at all with him. He would kill to protect the Alpha Mate. It was his drive being the Left Hand. The pack mattered, but beyond that, the Alpha and the Alpha Mate were the top priority.


	6. Chapter 5

# Chapter 5

### June 2024

Stiles didn't like waking up in Peter's spare bedroom of the loft apartment he bought, but it was better than being at home. The loft wasn't even a place that Stiles had known about before a week ago, after Jackson had stalked Stiles for a day, trying to get home alone. Stiles still wasn't sure what Jackson's goal was in that, but it was enough that Peter had pulled Stiles here. Along with Spencer and Ashley. Ashley didn't mind it, but Spencer was chaffing a little bit about being on lockdown. The shop wasn't closed, but the hours were reduced, and they all three went in at the same time and left at the same time. If someone went to get food, Peter went with them, and Adam stayed with those who stayed behind.

It was like a war footing, and Stiles didn't like it, but he understood it. Parrish was keeping a close eye on his father at work, which he did anyway.

It was nearly the end of June, and Derek would be back on July seventh with whatever members of the Herndon pack he was bringing with them. Stiles only knew this because of Peter. Stiles snagged his phone from the charger and opened up the texts. He flicked his finger and scrolled up through the texts from Derek. He hadn't texted at all since he had gone to Arizona, which didn't really shock Stiles all that much. He didn't like to split his focus, and he knew that Peter would tell Stiles everything. Peter gladly handed over his phone when he wanted Stiles to read when Derek had texted.

That wasn't what Stiles was looking at, though. No, it was the other messages from Derek over the last however long he had messages saved from. He found the end of the thread, or beginning, whatever one called it. He read over them, slowly. It showed what Stiles had been thinking about before falling asleep the night before.

Derek had been pulling away from Stiles for a while, but it was so slow that Stiles hadn't even noticed. He felt sick to his stomach at the moment.

"Good morning," Peter said as he came into the room. He was mostly dressed for the day.

"Why couldn't you have been my mate?"

"Because I'm not made perfectly for you." Peter walked across the room. He sat down on the bed beside Stiles and brushed at the fringe of Stiles' hair. It was probably sticking around everywhere. "I do love you, Stiles, but it's just like Spencer, Derek, and Cora."

"I know. I feel the same, but you...you would never do this to your Mate."

"What now?"

"He's been pulling away for a while. I can see it in our texts. I thought it was just me being paranoid. I mean, I've always thought that he was too good for me."

Peter snorted, and Stiles knew that Peter thought that Derek didn't deserve Stiles, and it was kind of being proven right now.

"Do you have any work today?"

"Yeah, I have ward stuff that I need to do now that I have a workspace set up here. I was going to stay here. No one knows that I am here."

"Adam will come here," Peter said.

"Yeah, I figured on that one."

"Don't be a baby."

"I'm not. I just...ugh. I'm tired of this shit. I want...I want Derek. I want the guy who drove to where I was when a bird flew into my windshield, and I was crying horribly about killing it. I want the Derek that used to wake me up with kisses. What can I do to get him back?" Stiles asked.

"I don't know. I was never good at that kind of thing. Maybe Adam can give you advice," Peter said.

Stiles shrugged. There was no point lying in bed all morning. He had a room to work in, and while Peter and Spencer were gone, he could get a lot of work done. They were both mothering him, which was a shock considering neither of them had maternal or paternal bones in their bodies.

The idea of a shower was good, so Stiles forced himself out of bed. As soon as he headed into the bathroom, Peter left the room.

Stiles had been taking at least two showers a day the last few weeks; the warmth of the water and just being touched was good. After he was out, Stiles looked at himself in the mirror. He could see the bite mark on his shoulder and smiled until he saw that it was different. It looked red, not just the skin around it after the hot shower, but the scar was red as well. He touched it, and it hurt. He wasn't sure what to make of that, so he put on a shirt and hoped it wouldn't bother him.

Breakfast smelled wonderful, so Stiles was content to just sit and eat, listening to Spencer talk about the customers the day before.

"Many are asking about you. Worried that you aren't yourself. I just told them that Derek's been away and so are missing him. Which means that they then start cooing." Spencer gagged a little before leaning into Ashley.

"I'm staying here today," Ashley said.

Stiles looked over at the workspace that he used the night before. He worked from home, and as long as he had the Internet, he could work from anywhere.

"You don't have to. Go in with Spencer."

"Nah, the customers were a little bothersome to me yesterday. I would rather stay here. That way, Adam and I can take turns feeding you."

"I'm a grown man; I can feed myself. I just forget to."

"And that's why you need a minder when you are working," Spencer said.

Stiles stuck his tongue out at Spencer, and the topic rolled into things that were happening in town.

"That's nothing compared to the gossip from over town."

"Yeah?" Peter asked.

"Yeah. So Allison has been seen coming and going from an apartment building. Only no one can figure out whose place she is going to. It's not hers. The thing is that most people don't know everyone who lives there. I do," Spencer said.

"Isaac," Peter said.

"Yes."

"Allison has been smelling like Isaac since Scott went to Arizona. Kira has been missing him, and I think she might actually profess her love for him sometime soon. Allison though is over Scott for good this time. I hope. Though, Kira can do a hell of a lot better than Scott anyway."

"At least he and Malia are done," Spencer said.

"Please don't remind me of that. I hated having to be nice to him."

Peter's phone rang before anyone could say anything about it. Peter's nose turned up, but there was a smirk on his lips.

"Yes, McCall?" Peter asked.

"So, my debit card isn't working," Scott said.

"Yes, that is correct. Your new one is probably waiting at the house. I did a little moving of things around. I talked to Derek about this already.'

"Why?"

"Most everyone in the pack had a card that came from the central account. That account is now Hale only. Cora and Derek's cards still work, and he'll gladly get all of your food and everything you need while away, but everyone else's is now attached to an account that reflects what you actually do for the pack."

"What?"

Stiles watched as Peter laid his phone down and put it on to where Spencer could hear as well.

"Well, there have been some issues since Derek and you guys left, and what it boiled down to is that Derek's salary, my earnings, and Stiles' are no longer paying for the pack to do what they want. You guys are basically getting a salary for the stuff you do for the pack, but other than that, you will have to earn your own way in the world. It's much easier for me to manage that way. All accounts are still valid. If something happens like a wreck or a machine fails in your house, Derek will gladly help pay for that."

"Derek's not going to let this stand. We are all family."

"Yes, well, this is what happens when a family treats other family like shit. Maybe you should actually talk to your best friend."

"What does Isaac have to do with this?" Scott asked.

"Wow, Scott. I thought that Stiles was your best friend."

"Uh, well, he is," Scott said.

Stiles shook his head. He had known that they had been growing apart for years, but Stiles still maintained that they were best friends.

"So, Stiles is throwing a fit because Jackson doesn't like him?"

"Actually, no. Stiles had no part in this decision. I am the person who controls the money for the pack. I decided that I was sick of tired of the pack degrading Stiles into nothing more than the piece of ass they have decided he is."

"Other than trying to control a few of us, what else is he? He does nothing all day long."

"And this is ending before I decide that you don't even get the money you are due. Think about what you just said, Scott. If that were true, this pack would be dead." Peter hung up.

"What's going on with the money?" Stiles asked.

"Derek approved this last week. We cut off everyone to the Hale money. Which your money was going into. I made a new account for the business's profits, and it's all in your name. You paid back the loan with interest that you weren't supposed to pay anyway, and I decided that you funding everyone's rich baby ways was going to stop. Each pack member is like staff. They have a certain amount of money they get just from that. Then they get more when they are doing other things. Those who are with Derek earn more since they are not working at the moment; it's equal to what they would earn from their job. Those who don't do anything else for the pack outside of fighting when it's needed, earn just a simple bit of money."

"Jackson's going to be pissed."

"Lydia has been made aware of what is going on. She knows why it's happening, and she doesn't care. So, yes, it is happening. It's already done. Derek was already made aware of what Jackson did that night the week that the group went away. Someone recorded it and emailed it to him. He was pissed. This was the best way of making things a little more even. Jackson wants to act like a big man, and he can't support his expensive ways with his salary, and Lydia had already told him that he couldn't pay for the insurance with the family cars they have when he went after the new Porsche. So yes, Lydia is well aware that when his new insurance policy is up for renewal, he probably won't have the money for it."

"I don't understand why she stays with him. He's the only Werepeacock that I know." Ashley sounded really confused as he said it.

"Ah, he's a hybrid. We had a lot of issues with him when he finally shifted for the first time. He's a Werepeacock and Kanima."

"Oh, yeah, the lizard part of him. I've seen his tail when he turns into that. It's freaky, man."

"You should have been here to live it. He didn't start shifting at puberty like others, and then we had this thing out there under the control of someone. It took a while to figure out it was a Kanima. Stiles can tell you all about the horrible time today. He can get chatty when working; he wouldn't mind you sitting in the doorway," Spencer said.

"You know...I think Cora is my favorite Hale."

Spencer and Peter laughed, but Stiles knew that part of that wasn't that they thought it was funny. "I need to eat."

"Food on its way," Ashley said as he stood up.

* * *

Stiles laughed as he snagged a bit of pita and dragged it through the hummus. He and Ashley were watching a rerun of an old-time America's Funniest Videos and just enjoying relaxing. He was enjoying just having Ashley around. Stiles knew him, and he knew him well, but the man was still pretty closed off.

"So, you've never said why you live alone."

"Spencer knows, but I just don't really like to talk about it. My Aunt loved me; I know that she did, but she had many issues with my transition. She wasn't horrible, but I think she was also very upset that all of her parents' money went to me outside of the life insurance policy. The life insurance was just about a quarter of the money, but she was set the way they looked at it. She's the eldest, and there was no one else left on my Dad's side of the family. I had nearly nothing from my parents that hadn't gone to raising me and getting my grandparents a place where I could live with them. They had a single bedroom place before, and that wasn't big enough for me. It also didn't have a backyard, and I was young enough that I needed that. It sold for good enough, so that went to my Aunt to help her get a bigger condo in Beacon City."

"My Dad was my rock. We had a few issues, okay we had many issues, but I knew that he loved me. I didn't have to worry about telling him that I didn't like girls. I didn't have to worry when I shifted, and they figured out that I wasn't normal. I could have easily been the thing that broke Dad's back when they figured out what I was." Stiles looked at Ashley to see him looking away at a window. "Is that why you live alone?"

"Mostly. I never wanted or needed a roommate to make ends meet. My job pays more than enough to keep me happy, and my small house and land were bought outright. I want a pack but not just any pack. My Aunt had one that she was kind of part of, and none of them accepted me."

"Well, the people that matter accept you," Stiles said.

"Yeah, they do. That's all that matters."

"So, still hungry?" Stiles asked.

"Yes."

"Come with me," Stiles said. He stood up and headed into the kitchen. He opened the freezer and pulled out the baggie that had broccoli on the cover. He reached into it and pulled out two pints of ice cream. He handed one of them to Ashley and took the other for himself.

"What the hell? I didn't even smell that."

"No, the bag did have broccoli in it, and it keeps that smell."

"How did you learn that?"

"Peter shared it with me a long time ago. There is a bag of okra in the freezer in the basement that has his good ice cream. I think he hopes I forgot as I haven't got into it there, but then no one really touched my ice cream."

"Well, this is good. He still hides it here?"

"Spencer, I would bet."

Ashley laughed. They settled in at the couch and ate while watching more fun videos.

It was just after two when Stiles heard a car pull up. He paused the show and waited until it shut off so that he could hear who was in the vehicle. He heard his father getting out. It didn't take long for him to make it up the elevator and onto the floor with the loft. Stiles met him at the door, and he was frowning when he came inside. Noah looked around, seeing Ashley.

"Ashley, hello."

"Do you need me to leave for a little bit?" Ashley asked.

"No. No. It's fine. We have a new set of murders. Parrish is handling them, but I told him that you needed to be in the loop on it all. He wasn't sure why. I reamed his ass about that and reminded him that Stiles is in control when Derek is out of town; he kind of blanked. I've texted Peter, and Parrish is getting a rundown of pack stuff. I know that Hellhounds aren't like the rest but damn."

"Parrish is more worried about his girlfriend than anything else," Ashley said.

"He has a girlfriend?" Stiles asked.

"That's news to me. Wow. Okay, so I would like you to go in and look at things tomorrow with Peter. Peter said that Ashley and Adam will stay with Spencer at the store."

"Sure. Why?"

"Something is going on, and I don't understand what is going on. I had Adam come and look, and he said that you understand magic in a way that is like breathing. He thinks you will do better at understanding. He said something about a three-fold death."

"That's not good. That's not good at all. There are a lot of things that happen with three-fold deaths, and none of them are good. I'll do some research into a few things. Peter has good books here so I can do that this afternoon. I worked all morning and can't do much with magic for the rest of the day."

"I don't want the files out of the station, so you will have to go there. I hope to have the ME's report by the time you come in. After breakfast?" Noah asked.

"Yes. That's fine. We can all leave from here, drop them off at the store and then head to the station. Peter's been feeding me like he thinks I'm pregnant. I made sure that Derek couldn't get me pregnant years ago."

"I remember the minor freak out before you and Derek became intimate. I remember a three-day research binge that had Derek freaking out because he swore you didn't eat at all during it."

Stiles nodded his head, and he looked at Ashley, trying not to break out in tears. His father looked at Ashley and then at Stiles before he got close and hugged Stiles.

"What's going on?" Noah asked.

Stiles shook his head, but Ashley started to talk, and Stiles couldn't do a thing about it because as soon as Ashley said Derek's name. Stiles started to cry. His knees went weak, and he went down with his father helping to support him as he went down. Stiles lost himself in his tears. He cried for the pack that he thought that he had, the family that was leaving him behind because of something stupid as hell. It had to be stupid because he wanted nothing more than his pack to be happy.

Ashley finished just about when Stiles was finally done crying, leaving tears and snot on his father's uniform. He settled down on the floor out of his father's arms and just looked out the window.

"I knew that Jackson was causing issues, but I didn't think that Peter would keep this from me."

"I asked him to keep it from you, and right now, it's not hurting me, so he didn't go against that order. He would if he thought it would help me."

"I wish you had told me," Noah said.

"I didn't want to worry you and make you not like Derek."

"I can separate what I feel about my son-in-law and how I feel about a man who works for me. Is that really why you are here?"

"Peter had a lot of reasons, but mainly, I don't want to be where Jackson and the rest of the pack are at the moment. I need time. Peter's taking control, which he is supposed to do anyway when Derek's not around, and I'm with Derek."

"You need to talk to me more," Noah said.

"I know, but...I've not fully accepted everything yet. I need a little more time."

* * *

Stiles opened up the door to the Hale house. He found a few members sitting down in the living room. He looked at Liam and Mason, who were not sitting together. They always sat together. Peter was already standing by the fireplace that had a fake fire in it. There were no real fires in the Hale house. Stiles had spent the last two days working with his father.

"Thank you for those of you who showed up. It's going to be your job to tell the rest of the pack what is going on."

"Why us?" Mason asked.

"Well, their Alpha Mate demanded that they come here, and they didn't. That means that they don't care about what I say, but I care about them. There is a Darach in Beacon Hills killing people. They have already killed three people."

"So you mean you and Derek didn't actually kill the Darach in high school?" Erica asked.

Stiles rubbed at the bridge of his nose. "Erica, that is like saying that we killed a Werewolf, and that means that we will never come across another. A Darach is just an evil Druid. They have stopped trying to earn balance for the world and have their own agenda that they want to fill."

"So, what is this Darach's agenda?" Isaac asked.

"We have no clue. They aren't killing like the other, but their newest death was a three-fold death. They gained a lot of power from it. The only link so far is that the people that have been killed have magic. I don't know what sect they belonged to, but they are were magical. No one is to go anywhere alone."

"Why do you think we are going to listen to you?" Mason asked.

"Well, I'm in charge while Derek is gone, or did you forget that?"

"Peter's in charge," Mason said.

"Actually, no. As he has told you every time he's told you all what to do, it's all on my orders. But hey, if you want to disregard what I am telling you, go ahead. I'll make sure to say that you were a stupid asshole at your funeral and make sure that everyone knows that you died because you refuse to actually listen to the person in charge."

Mason scoffed and looked away from Stiles.

"Is that how you all feel?" Stiles asked.

"I disagree," Liam said.

"Anyone else disagree?" Stiles asked.

There was silence, and Stiles shook his head.

"Then vote among yourselves who you want to lead you until Derek gets back in under a week. Whatever happens, is on you, though."

Stiles pulled out his cell phone and texted Derek.

_Your Betas have decided that I am not worth leading them. So if any of them die, that's on their head. We have a Darach in town that has killed three magic users. I told them to stay together and not go anywhere alone, but I have no clue if they are going to do that. It's on their own heads. I refuse to be treated like this. I'm at Peter's apartment if you want to speak to me in person when you get back. You've said nothing to me in text and ignore my calls all month long. So I will assume that your silence means that you agree with everything they are doing._

Stiles looked at the Betas and humans who were all sitting around and not looking at him. They looked like children who had been caught with their fingers in the cookie jar. He was done with them.

"Qui tacet consentire videtur, ubi loqui debuit ac potuit."

"What shit did you just dribble out of your ass?" Jackson asked.

"He who is silent is taken to agree when he ought to have spoken and was able to," Peter said.

"What he means is that since we didn't disagree when Liam did that, we all agree with what Mason said."

Stiles turned and left. He heard someone yelling, and he didn't care. He headed right for the Jeep. He touched it. It had been the first big present that Derek had gotten for him, making sure that his mother's Jeep was replaced on the inside. He rubbed his hand over the spot where Derek had once dented the front part. Stiles have left the dent but made sure that the paint was fine, so it wouldn't rust. This was the Derek he loved, the one who had done things just to make Stiles happy while also supporting him. He wasn't even sure when Derek had stopped supporting him.

"Ready?" Liam asked as he got into the front seat of the Jeep. Peter was already in the backseat, looking smug as hell.

Stiles looked at the front of the house and realized that he didn't think that it was home anymore. He had moved out of his father's house the day he turned eighteen, and this had been home. It had been the place where he had grown into a full-fledged adult, well there and college, but now there was no nostalgia to live there. He hadn't even wanted to go there tonight, but Peter had said that he needed to be there. Stiles knew why Peter wanted him there, and it was to destroy him thinking of it as home anymore.

"Ashley and Spencer already cleaned everything that was yours out of the master bedroom. Ashley said someone had already been going through it all. He thought it was Jackson, but there were another few scents in the room, so he couldn't fully tell."

"Yeah, and you are an asshole. But I can't fault you for what you did today. I needed it. I might not ever thank you for it, but I needed it."

Stiles got into the Jeep and settled into the front seat. He started it up and turned away. He was glad of it too. He easily navigated to the road and headed back to Peter's place. Stiles caught a few scents on the air. A few of the missing pack members had come to Peter's probably following scents there. The whole building was empty, which was what Peter wanted. Stiles hadn't asked what he planned to do with the other floors, but he was doing something with them. Stiles knew that. Peter had a lot of money; Stiles didn't ask where a lot of it came from either.

"How are you feeling?" Liam asked.

"Good. I feel good. I'm...well happy is a long way off, but I'm good."

"They didn't get inside, right?" Liam asked as he got out of the Jeep.

"No. They didn't. They did get around the whole place; they have stunk it all up." Peter curled his lips like he was smelling something horrible.

"When did you start to hate the pack?" Stiles asked.

"Right about when I realized what all of them are doing. Which is hurting you, sweetheart."

"Why?"

"I've said it more than once, your humanity helps keep this pack sane. You might be a shifter like the rest of us, but you are also the best gauge of humanity. Derek and I would do anything to protect those that we love, including crossing lines. Sometimes you go right along with us, but after a while, you've leveled out, and you don't go for the worst acts that the rest of us do. So yeah, you keep Derek from going too far after everything that had happened to him in life."

"He used to say that I was his reward for surviving to make it through the Argents hunting him and his family."

Peter snorted at that. He let them into the building, and they made their way up to his floor. Ashley was visible above the couch, which meant that Spencer was lying down with his head in his boyfriend's lap. He was laying there still when Stiles came around the couch.

"Did you guys have any issues getting Stiles' stuff from the house?" Peter asked.

"Nope. No one said a thing. I mean nothing. They greeted us and then nothing as we carried everything out."

"Well, I guess that answers that you could have been robbing the house blind and stolen everything, and they wouldn't have thought a thing of it, it seems."

Ashley shrugged his shoulders and looked down at Spencer. Stiles followed the look to see that he was asleep. "I heard the pack outside earlier. They were wondering how to get inside. A few actually tried to scale the building. I heard one fall, and the others laughed. They don't act like a pack at all."

"No, it's been going off the rails for a while. I've never taken part in a lot of the fighting and the management of the pack after I thought that I had Derek trained up well. I left him to do that, and now I regret it. The pack is going to shatter, but I have no way of figuring out how. I was too blinded by my own diversions."

"No," Stiles said.

"Stiles, I have a little blame in this. Derek has the most, but you and I have our own. We didn't see it all happening. Though, I think that a lot of the bigger issues have cropped up quickly. Most of the pack would never have been like that around you," Peter said.

Stiles nodded his head and looked out the window before he settled into the armchair that had appeared in the loft while he had been out and about working on the case for his father. He was on tap as a magical consultant for the Sheriff's Department. He had been since he had graduated Yale. It was a comfortable chair that Stiles really loved. He was able to curl up in it and work on his laptop, or paperwork, or just read. He was doing a lot more pleasure reading than he had been over the last few years.

"So, what is the game plan?" Stiles asked.

"We work the case, and we protect ourselves, and if we run across the pack having issues, we deal with them. Then we wait for Derek to come back. He will arrive on his own, and then the other pack will follow a few days later. They will get their own transport here so that they aren't trapped. Until that happens, we just do the best that we can to figure out where Derek's head is at."

"Well, that sounds sensible and sucky, but what other choice do we have?" Stiles leaned back in his chair and looked at the fireplace. It was out, but it had logs in it. He wasn't sure if they were fake or not. It wasn't like Peter had ever really stayed here long enough to want to light a fire.

Stiles wasn't looking forward to next week at all.


	7. Chapter 6

# Chapter 6

### July 2024

Stiles was sitting in the middle of the Hale house's living room when he heard Derek's SUV pulling up. He stood up and headed outside. Derek was the first out of the SUV, and he looked at Stiles with a grin on his face. Now that Derek was back, they could fix things. He could figure out what was going on and get them back on track.

Derek rushed up to Stiles before he could get off the porch steps. Derek wrapped his arms around Stiles and held him close, his nose rubbing up and down on his neck before he stiffened. Derek dropped Stiles. It was so quickly that Stiles wasn't able to get his feet under him, and he was looking up at Derek from where he was sprawled on the porch.

"What the hell?"

"Why do you smell like Peter and Spencer, only?" Derek asked.

"Because the rest of the pack treats me like I'm a fucking Leper. Jackson's only called me his Alpha's hole to fuck for weeks now. Which you would know if you had bothered to check and respond to my messages."

"They would never," Derek said.

"They would never? Who Jackson? You were given an audio track of what he had said."

"Jackson will be dealt with, but the rest of the pack wouldn't actually disobey me like that."

"Disobey you like what, nephew?" Peter asked.

Stiles looked to the side to see Peter standing with Chris and Stiles' father. His father had just gotten off of shift, so to see him out of his uniform meant that he wanted to push the fact that he was there as Stiles' father and nothing else.

"I ordered them to follow Stiles and then if he wasn't around you." Derek turned to fully face Peter.

Stiles realized that Derek wasn't going to help him up. He got up, brushing away the dirt he had acquired. He stepped back from Derek to be able to see his face as Peter talked to him. He wanted to see his lover's face as he saw exactly what his pack was like.

"Well, I think that more than a few Betas chose not to do that. They followed me up until the point where they found out I was taking orders from Stiles, then they even stopped listening to me. This ended up with Mason nearly getting killed when he was out and alone after discovering the Darach. It was only Liam hearing him yell that saved his life. The Darach is dead, by the way. She gained magic from the three she killed and then was going to take Mason to attract the pack to her, and she was going to kill them one by one until Stiles went after her. She aimed to kill him to take over the control of the Nemeton."

"Oh, thank God, you are back," Jackson said as he exited the house. He looked at Stiles with a look of disgust on his face. "Your whore was trying to act like he was in charge."

"He is in charge," Derek said.

Jackson looked shocked at that. He raised an eyebrow. "He gutted our money and is probably buying dildos to fuck himself with it."

"The only cock that I have had in me is Derek's, Jackson. We don't need fake cocks since he can fuck me the way that I want every single time that I want it," Stiles said.

"He's stealing your money," Jackson said.

"He earns more money than me, Jackson. It's his damned money, and I had hoped that you have to pay for your own expenses would change your tune, but I guess not. Get out of here," Derek said.

"I'm pack. You told me that pack is family."

"Yeah, and that means that you are disrespecting your family every single time that you open up your mouth to talk like that about Stiles. I want everyone gone. Peter, you too." Derek's eyes flashed red.

The pack that was around to see that all scattered. Stiles laughed inside as Jackson was one of the first to make it to a car. Jackson's Porsche was sitting at his house without insurance on it, given that he couldn't pay for that. Stiles was still very happy to see him driving his Mom Van, as he called it when Lydia had bought it, but it fit their whole family in it.

Stiles heard the pack inside of the house heading out as well. He looked at the three parents, and Peter had an eyebrow raised. Stiles nodded his head. He was okay staying with Derek. He would figure out what the hell was going on and talk to Peter about it later. It was going to be easier for him to do that kind of thing here than it was for him to do it over the phone, given that Derek didn't tell him he was even leaving.

"Call if you need me, Son," Noah said as he walked past them, hugging Stiles tightly, and Stiles was pretty sure he was glaring at Derek.

"What has you pissed off?" Derek asked when they were finally alone.

"A month, Derek. I called you, and you never answered. I texted, and you never even read them. What the hell else would I be pissed at. Peter could get you on the phone, but I never could."

"I was working to get us an ally."

"Yeah, you were working. Is that why you didn't wake me up? I didn't even know you were gone until I realized that Boyd, Cora, and Scott weren't in the house. If I had pulled something like that, you would be pissed."

Derek just looked at Stiles like he was crazy. Stiles turned and headed into the house to stop himself from doing something stupid. He went to the kitchen, where he worked on getting himself some tea.

"Where is Spencer?"

"He's at the shop. We had a few orders set for being picked up around this time, so he offered to stay. He knew I wanted to see you. I missed you."

"I missed you, as well." Derek stepped up behind Stiles as he looked at the kettle as it started to warm up. Derek wrapped his arms around Stiles, holding him close.

Derek was nuzzling his neck like he always did when he needed to be calmed down. When he needed Stiles close to remind him what he had been fighting for all this time.

Stiles felt himself relaxing into Derek's arms, and he didn't fight it when Derek turned off the kettle. Derek turned him around and made to kiss him, but Stiles put a hand in the middle of his chest. "We are not going to the make-up sex without the fight first."

"Why not?" Derek asked. He lunged and got his lips over Stiles'.

Stiles let it happen just long enough for Derek to relax before he dropped the Mountain Ash powder that he had on his person. Derek was pushed back as it circled around Stiles to protect him.

"What the hell?" Derek demanded.

"I told you no. That's all that matters."

Derek glared at him.

"We are talking about this. I refuse to let you use your body and sex, which I love, to get me to forgive you for leaving without saying goodbye and refusing to talk to me for a month."

"Did you ever think that I did it on purpose?" Derek asked.

"Oh, I figured that you did, but I was giving you a chance to explain it all before I decided what to do."

"Decided to do? You act like you can leave me. That bite on your neck means that you are mine."

"No, it really doesn't." Stiles reached up and touched where the mark was still messed up. It was red, and he had a salve on it. He pulled his shirt to the side and showed Derek the state of it. "What do you think this means? Marks are forever. They don't even disappear in death. That's what the whole shit that we are fed is. I've looked it up, Derek. They do fade if the couple breaks up. The thing is that Cora told me that your mark is still there, so what that means is that you don't feel for me what you used to. You are wavering while I am still here waiting for you to come home to me."

"I love you," Derek said.

Stiles could hear that Derek wasn't lying or believed what he was saying, but the Mate mark said something different. He had been looking it all up; research was his forte.

"Isaac tells me that you have been living with Peter."

"Well, I'm not staying here where I had to fight to be treated like a human."

"I"m back now, so I expect you to move back in here."

"And you can just put that with the whole if wishes were horses beggars would ride."

"It's unseemly for you to be living with my Uncle, Stiles. It makes the pack mock me."

"Well, I mean, it's right up there with the fact that I have to live with him. I went from my father's house to here. If I moved into a place all on my own, the sharks would circle around. We have the Herndon pack coming in days. Maybe by then, you can convince me to move back in."

"Hours," Derek said.

"What?" Stiles asked.

"They are four hours behind us."

"That's not protocol. I should have been aware of this."

"You will know what I want you to know."

"I'll bring a bag back with me. We can tell them that I was staying with my father. Peter and Spencer will be moving back in as well. Or Spencer might choose to stay with Ashley."

"He'll be here."

"He's an adult. He can choose where he lives."

Derek raised an eyebrow in a challenge. For once, Stiles wasn't backing down. He wasn't sure what the hell was wrong with Derek, but this wasn't the man that he had fallen in love with. He wasn't the man that had been broken by the death of his sister, and Stiles and his father, along with his siblings, cousin, and uncle, put him back together.

* * *

Stiles felt the pain rip through him. It was worse than when he had felt Malia and Liam being attacked. There was a second set of pulses of pain as well. Someone was attacking two of his pack. Stiles dropped the bag he was packing in Peter's loft and took off for where the pain was coming from. It wasn't far. He was on four feet as soon as he was clear of the last door, and he raced to where he needed to be. He realized that only the pain's sharpness made him think it was close as he rounded on the path that would take him to the Hale house.

The clearing where the cars were all park was full, and he saw one with Arizona plates. He stopped when he felt that it was Derek. Derek was being hurt. Stiles changed back to his skin, and he didn't care that anyone could see him naked.

"DEREK SEBASTIAN HALE!" Peter yelled, and there was a snarl and more pain.

Stiles rushed in to where he could smell the pack. He stopped in his tracks as he saw what he was seeing. It was Derek standing above Spencer with bloody claws and in his Beta shift. Spencer was curled into a ball, trying to protect his head and stomach. Ashley was in his full shift form, in front of Spencer.

Derek had attacked Spencer. Cora was being held back by Jackson and Scott. Peter was being held by Chris and someone else that Stiles barely paid attention to. Derek's face said it all. He looked fucking pissed as he looked at the form of his brother on the ground.

"Explain!" Stiles yelled.

"Stay out of this," a woman said.

"Oh, stuff it up your mouth and choke on it, Bella," Peter said.

Stiles could only see the blood of his pack spilled by the pack's Alpha. He had nothing on his person to fight with, but he had his magic. He lunged, and with the power of the trees around him coursing through his body, he hit Derek, sending him flying. As soon as that happened, the pack growled, and Stiles turned to face them. Chris had let go of Peter, and they were rushing to grab Spencer. Ashley was still in Jaguar form, and he moved to get at Stiles' back and protect him. Cora was there, making them a tripod instead of them being back to back.

Fighting wasn't Stiles' thing, but he knew how. Derek made sure of that. Derek knew that it was needed with his mouth and his attitude and his use of sarcasm in the worst time.

Ashley was the first to move when the woman Bella rushed at them. Stiles watched as he tried to gut her. She didn't fight well at all for a female shifter who looked like she did. She was kind of beautiful, but the scent that she put off said that she was horrible.

"You can't fight as a human or a fox, Stiles, give up before Derek guts you," Jackson yelled as he rushed them.

The sound of a few gasps had Stiles ignoring them. He figured it was the Herndon pack. Stiles broke through the ring the pack was making, letting his claws out and doing his best to gut Jackson on his way through the line. A hand closed on his shoulder, and he used that pull to swing around, and he clawed the hell out of Derek's face before he took off.

He was on the other side and in his fur before anyone else could catch him. Ashley was on his heels, and he heard other paws that he knew well behind him. Cora was quick and nimble in her wolf form. Stiles knew traps that he could trigger the way he wanted them to be triggered that would slow down those following them.

Stiles could hear nearly the whole pack behind them. At least the ones that could shift. They were going too fast for even a Beta-shifted pack member to come after them. There were a few that had never got that in touch with their inner animal and could only do the Beta shift. Stiles kept up the fast pace and found the scent that he needed. The scent of Spencer's blood on his shoulder was throwing him off. He wanted it gone, but he wasn't stopping to get rid of it.

The first trap triggered after Cora went through, and it caught many of the pack; he heard the howls of pain. A few dodged it, but they were slowed down.

Stiles led them through a few more until the pack stopped following them. They were deep in the Preserve, so Stiles used Peter's pull to figure out how the hell to get back to the loft. They weren't actually that far as long as they went in a straight line. Ashley pushed into Stiles, and Cora came up on the other side of them.

The run to the loft took little time. Chris was downstairs waiting on them.

"Liam called and said that you guys were in the Preserve; I was going to head to drive to collect you."

"How is Spencer?" Stiles asked after he went back to human form.

"Peter's got him upstairs, and Melissa is on her way over to check him out. If she says so, he's going to the hospital."

"Fuck that. I am looking at him now. Cora, stay here with Chris and guard this place. Chris, activate the war wards if you need to if anyone shows up. We all go everywhere, or no one goes anywhere. I don't give a fuck what else happens. Derek has declared war on us."

"I didn't hear what happened, but Peter did. He rushed out in time to see Derek attack Spencer first. Spencer wasn't even acting violently. It was unprovoked."

"Jackson outed you," Ashley said.

"I know. I heard that, and right now, I don't care. Where is Adam?"

"He's upstairs. He heard the wolves across town howling and came here to make sure that he was somewhere that you guys would head to. This could come to war."

"No, it won't, not the kind of war you are thinking about."

"Stiles, Adam was on the phone when we got here. I think that it might come to that war."

"It'll be a quick one then," Stiles said.

Stiles kept his lips pressed tight as he headed up to the upstairs. The smell of Spencer’s blood was making him want to run and rip out Derek's throat. A cry escaped Stiles' mouth without him wanting it to when he saw his brother bleeding on the couch. He walked over and dropped down to his knees at Spencer's head. He cupped his cheek to make him look at him. He was awake, which was a good thing.

"Tell Melissa to not worry about it. I want a Sheriff's escort to the hospital. If Derek or any of his pack even think of getting close, I want them detained."

"Of course," Peter said. He got up and snagged the house phone and dialed.

Stiles didn't even pay attention to Peter and his conversation with his father. He looked at Spencer. "You stupid idiot."

"He was listening to Jackson's shit." Spencer was in a lot of pain, and Stiles touched his face again, trying to feel how much, but he found that he couldn't pull it.

"What's going on?"

"Derek's intent with the cuts means that Spencer can't be pain drained," Peter said.

"What?" Stiles asked.

"When he harms a Beta with intent, if they are a Shifter, their wounds don't heal quickly. Since Spencer is a human, Shifters can't drain his pain."

"Well, that's gonna be an issue," Stiles said. He moved to sit beside Spencer. He was holding a towel in place on his stomach. Stiles wasn't sure how he was able to do that with the pain that he was in.

"The Sheriff and two other deputies are here. Noah says that we are putting Spencer in his vehicle, and there is no fighting on that. Everyone else will be scattered among the deputies." Chris' tone was stronger than Stiles thought that it would be given the situation.

Stiles hadn't even noticed when he had come up to the loft.

"And how do we know they aren't going to take them to Derek?" Peter asked.

"Right now? Because the Sheriff has started charges against Derek for assault. Liam is at the station and giving his statement right now. The rest will follow later, for the ones that they can find. Derek's suspended pending the investigation. Peter, you carry him. Cora's waiting downstairs."

"Have any of the pack come here?"

"No. Liam went straight for the cops as soon as he could. Everyone else is on lockdown at the Hale house," Chris said.

"How do we know that?"

"Parrish. He's not going for Derek's shit. I guess that he was clued in onto what is really going on by his girlfriend."

"How do I still not know who that is?"

"I don't know, but no one does." Peter walked over to Spencer, and he apologized as he picked him up.

Spencer screamed in pain. Stiles felt like throwing up.

"The hospital is already aware of who is and who is not allowed to see him."

"Where is Adam?" Stiles asked.

"Waiting at the hospital. He's the protection there."

"He's going to call in reinforcements," Stiles said.

Chris nodded his head, and the look on his face told Stiles that Chris was sure that Adam had already done it. His eyes darted to the side, and then he froze. "Stiles, you are bleeding."

"Yeah, it's fine. I'll explain that later. It's nothing, but I'm sure that an ER staff member will want to look at it once they realize it's not from Spencer. Let's go."

The trip to Beacon Hills Memorial Hospital took forever in Stiles' mind, but he knew that it was mostly that he was just worried about Spencer. The towel was getting redder and redder, and he didn't like it.

"Son, I'm going to be taking his statement as soon as he's cleared to talk to me, alone," Noah said as he got out of the SUV and caught Stiles' arm as he was about to rush after where Peter was laying Spencer down on a gurney.

"I know. I know. He's..." Stiles couldn't. He shook his head and took a deep breath. He needed to be strong.

"If you promise to keep your mouth shut, I'll allow you and Peter in there. Now, we have calls that you attacked your Alpha."

"He had Spencer down on the ground by the time that I got there. They tried to grab me, and that was the only reason I attacked Derek. I also took the pack that followed Ashley, Cora, and me away through traps. We were fleeing for our lives after our Alpha attacked a human of the pack. No pack in the country would call for me to be jailed for that."

"I know, but I wanted your words." Noah held up a recorder. "Your official statement can come later. I wanted something I could share when the hordes invade."

"The Herndon pack is here. Four of them. Peter called one Bella."

"That would be Bella Herndon. When she followed her sister to Arizona, she took the name of the pack. She's the sister of the Alpha Mate. She hates Peter just as much as her sister does. It's not good."

"Jackson outed me, Dad," Stiles said.

"As a Werefox?"

"Yes."

"Well, then I am not worried at all about Celeste and Kaïs coming to town."

Stiles nodded his agreement, and he was glad when his father waved him forward. As soon as Stiles got inside, he saw Adam standing beside the trauma room, which wasn't exactly needed with Spencer, but the room was massive, and it allowed Peter, Cora, and Ashley to be inside. Stiles went right past Adam, laying a hand on his shoulder with a smile before the smell of the room hit Stiles. There was already a low level of infection setting in. Probably from where he had been on the ground trying to save himself from being fully gutted.

"Infection," Stiles said.

"Yeah, I caught that as well," one of the nurses said as she cleaned Spencer's wound. The doctor was talking to Spencer, but Stiles couldn't hear him. He was so focused on Spencer's body, listening to his heart.

"Pull back," Adam said.

Stiles shook his head.

"Yes, or you are going to zone out, Stiles. He needs you to be here and be aware, not freaking out. He keeps looking at you, no one else."

"He's worried about me. I went crazy on the last person to hurt him in a fight. That this was done by his brother, my Mate, that means that it is worse, and he's worried that I am going to go and kill Derek."

"He doesn't need surgery," the doctor proclaimed.

"Good," Peter said. He reached out and touched Spencer's foot. Peter looked at Stiles next. The look on his face proclaimed murder.

"No one is taking this into their own hands. Derek's going to face legal issues from either Dad or Celeste," Stiles said.

"Fine," Peter spat out.

"Don't test me, Peter."

"I'm not. I'm pissed off. Spencer's in danger and you are as well because Jackson couldn't keep his mouth shut. The Herndons might not like magic users, but someone like you, he would kidnap and use until there was nothing left of you."

"It's a good thing that he's never removing me from Beacon Hills, isn't it?" Stiles asked.

"What?"

"When Stiles was a kid, his mother cast protections on the city to make sure that Stiles could never be taken from it against his will. Even if he's knocked out, he won't be taken. They will hit a wall and be stopped. When she cast it, the Nemeton attached itself to it. When she went to cast it again, she found that it was still active. The Nemeton keeps it going."

"Why did she do that?" Chris asked.

"Someone who I had pissed off tried to kidnap Stiles when he was three. Stiles bit him and broke a few bones on his body when his magic reacted to his panic. After that, we took no chances with anything. He wasn't going to be taken again."

"It's still active. I guess the Nemeton really likes me."

"That's how Donovan never got you out of Beacon Hills, and it was easy to track the two of you," Chris said.

"Yes. He was shocked that he couldn't get me across the city line, but it worked out in my favor since he was so freaked out by that, he didn't watch me."

"That's something that I should have known," Peter said.

"His mother made him promise to tell no one. He literally can't, Peter. I chose not to, so that is on me but don't you think that if someone of the pack knew, they would have mouthed off by now, and that would mean that whoever wanted Stiles would just kill him."

"Okay, out!" one of the nurses said. She was glaring at everyone. "One of you can stay."

"I'll stay and then can swap out with Peter when it's time for me to give my statement," Ashley said.

Peter walked over and kissed the top of Spencer's forehead and gave him a glare. Spencer laughed and then groaned as it moved his stomach. The doctor was working despite the fighting going on around him, helping to clean out the cuts so that they could be closed up. Everyone else did the same, checking on Spencer until it was just Stiles and Ashley in there.

"I don't want you ever get hurt for me," Stiles said.

"I know, but you don't get to decide what hill I defend myself on. Derek's wrong on this. Jackson was telling him that you were letting me, Peter, and Ashley have you."

"We will talk about that after we all talk to the cops, Spencer. Don't worry about it. It's fine. You just worry about you right now." Stiles looked up at Ashley, and he looked grim. "If you have to leave this room for anything, you will get someone else to sit with him. You are his protection unless you are tapped out by someone else."

"I understand."

Stiles left the room, looking at his hands that were still covered in blood.

"Stiles, Jones is going to get your statement while you clean up. Melissa is bringing some clothes from my place that you have on hand for if you stay the night. I can't help with the rest, but at least you won't have clothes on you that are bloody."

"We have scrubs they can wear, Sheriff," a nurse said as he stepped up to them. "As well as a place that Mister Hale can shower since he's wearing a lot of blood on him from carrying Spencer around. If you would like, the deputy can talk to him while he cleans up. The hospital is on lockdown in the ER area, at least. No one is getting in here unless we allow it. We all know the Hale Pack and won't let them in. So please relax while you deal with this."

"Thank you," Stiles said. He looked at his hands, covered in blood. The blood of his brother. His stupid little brother who shouldn't have done anything like what he had done. He wanted to hear what happened, and he would keep his mouth shut.

"I'll go with Peter. I'll keep my mouth shut, but I need to hear what happened," Stiles said.

"Fine. Do not speak."

Stiles followed Jones and Peter into the ER's back, where there was a huge shower area for things like this. Usually, it was cops and EMTs who used it, but there were clothes stacked. Jones had Stiles' clothes, and he worked on getting his shirt off. There was a bag that was red and labeled for bio-waste. Stiles dropped his shirt into that. He didn't even remember getting dressed at Peter's, but someone must have shoved clothes at him at some point, and he put them on by rote. He washed his hands as Peter started to talk.

"I was inside with Chris, waiting for the arrival of the Herndon pack representatives. I heard them arrive, but Derek hadn't called for me yet. He was upset about many things, so for once, I chose not to push at him. He can be a bastard when he's crossed. I heard him talking and one of the Herndon pack, the dumb young one, asked where Derek's piece of ass was."

Stiles gripped the sink. He kept his mouth shut, though.

"He talked about how the rumors were that Stiles was very pretty and had a mouth that just begged to be fucked. Then Bella Herndon made the comment that they hoped to see Derek claim him at some point, mount him and fuck him like the bitch he is. That was when Jackson said that he had been getting sex from myself, Ashley, and Spencer while Derek was gone. Jackson also made a comment that he had thought that everyone in the pack would get a shot at him if we had."

"That man is going to get himself killed," Jones said.

"The Herndon pack loved it. They just egged Jackson on. Then there was Spencer telling everyone to shut their faces. The Herndons didn't like being told to shut up by a human. It went over like led bricks. Then Derek told them to shut their mouths. Derek ordered Spencer to shut up. Spencer looked at Derek and told him that if he wanted to believe that Stiles would ever cheat on him, he didn't deserve him. Jackson shoved Spencer, and he stumbled into the middle of what was now a circle of the pack. I tried to stop it, but then one of the Herndon's had grabbed me. Chris held me back as well. I have no doubt that Chris thought that me going in would get Spencer hurt. Then Derek attacked when Spencer said that they were only doing what Derek should be doing, protecting his Mate. It was hazy for a moment, but I was held back. Then there was Stiles, naked, which told me that he had run in his fox form. The Herndons were shocked by all of it. They want our blood. They want the Hale Pack destroyed."


	8. Chapter 7

# Chapter 7

### July 2024

Stiles leaned against the wall and looked down at where he could see the Deputy who was set to watch over them. He had a cup of tea between his hands. Everything had gone to hell. Turning his focus from that, he listened to the sound of Peter moving around the loft. Stiles was happy that they had this place. Even his father had stayed here the night before, sharing a bed with Peter. Stiles had stayed in his room on an air mattress while Spencer had his bed. Stiles wasn't sure what was going on, really. It was just past dawn. The sun wasn't even fully in the sky yet for the area. Stiles liked quiet mornings like this, but he really wished that he wasn't here. He wanted to be sitting on the front porch of the house and listening to the pack bickering inside.

Derek was not the man that he had fallen in love with. Stiles had met him when he was sixteen, and while there had been the pull to Derek, he hadn't fallen in love with him in one single instance. He had slowly drifted into love with him. It was the way that Derek never tried to come between Stiles and his father. The way that he never tried to take Stiles away when he realized how much Noah worked and therefore wasn't actually taking care of his son at all. He had just stepped in and made sure that he was around more. He made sure that Peter was as well while he was slowly getting better.

The death of Laura had pulled Peter out of his coma, snapping into place the pack bond that Laura had been suppressing. It was why they had been away from there. If the rest of the pack had been able to feel Peter, they would have wanted to come back. Derek had never been jealous of Stiles' friendship with Spencer of the way that Peter's bond to him was stronger. Peter had been injured for years, and he had bonded with the first person to show him affection at that time. The old Derek understood that. This new Derek seemed jealous of the family bonds.

Stiles pulled out his cell phone. There were the harassing messages from the pack. Stiles had already messaged each of them back with the same message telling them to stop, or any message after would be harassment, and he would take it to the cops. It hadn't stopped any of them. Stiles was not happy about it, but he would easily send it to his father to deal with when the time came. He wasn't blocking them just in case someone messaged him something that he needed to know. There were a few who were too stupid and would tell him that they are coming after him.

"Stiles?" Ashley asked as he stepped out onto the balcony.

Stiles looked back at him, seeing that he looked run down in a way that a Shifter shouldn't be.

"What do you need?"

"Spencer just told me that his pack bond is gone," Ashley said.

"I was afraid that it would happen. Peter said that he felt his getting thin." Stiles snagged the side of his T-shirt and pulled it. He ripped the bandage off with his other hand and then showed Ashley where his mating mark was gone. "It happened last night. The pack bond is still there because for Derek to break that on top of this, could send him feral. So whoever is poisoning him against all of us, well, they are at least smart enough to not have him do it all in one go."

"This is fucked up."

"Yes. How attached are you to living here?"

"I've stayed for Spencer. Why?"

"Helena and Robbie are coming with Celeste and Kaïs. They are going to take Spencer to safety. Just until he's healed. They will take you with them."

"And we won't be stopped from coming back."

"Beacon Hills is my home. You'll pry me out of here when I'm dead and maybe not even then. So yes, you won't be stopped from coming back. Spencer is the weak link in all of this. Dad's another, but he's got enough non-Hale Pack people around him. Derek's suspended, and he's not allowed back on the grounds until that is done. If he goes after my father, he's going to have the FBI come down on his ass. Hopefully, his pack is smart enough not to court that."

"And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts. And I looked, and behold a pale horse. And his name that sat on him was Death, and hell followed with him," Ashley quoted.

Stiles snorted before he took a sip of his tea.

"They are going to court death, and it's going to look like a smackdown. They have all forgotten what it's like to be afraid for their lives. The Hale Pack has grown water fat. They don't fear the things that they should because they have seen peace."

"Dude, you have got to stop mixing your quotes. Johnny Cash and the Children of Dune TV series? Good use, though."

Ashley laughed. He looked down at the Deputy who was sitting in his car. "I'll go wherever he goes. Are they shipping us to New York or to Poland?"

"I have no clue on that one. Celeste hasn't said. She's getting here soon. She's the one driving since I guess when Kaïs is pissed off, he drives like an old lady. So she wants to make sure that they get here in a timely manner."

Ashley's head shot up, and he looked out into the area around the building. "I think they are here. Two SUVs are coming."

"I hear that. I don't think it's any of the pack's SUVs. Alright, so we should head inside. Has Spencer eaten yet?" Stiles asked.

"Yes, Peter's hovering like only family can do." Ashley had a smile on his face. It was wiped away seconds later.

Stiles turned to look where he heard the engines cut out on the SUVs. He saw his Aunt coming out first. She was walking up to the Deputy. All of them had to show ID to be let through. That all four of them had the name Gajos helped.

"Ready to meet the Gajos family?" Stiles asked.

"Yeah. It's not like they are bogeymen for the evil of the world or anything." Ashley had a grimace on his face.

Stiles knew that it was more meeting them under this instead of just meeting them. Stiles' family would never hurt anyone who hadn't hurt someone else. They were going to be talking to Stiles alone.

Heartbeats outside had Stiles looking. There were two new ones.

"Incoming unknowns!" Stiles yelled at the top of his lungs.

The Deputy started to look around instead of looking at who yelled. The four Gajos moved like a well-trained until Kaïs and Robbie taking the front with Celeste and Helena taking the back. It wasn't for protection; those two went for the kill instead of maiming. Kaïs and Robbie were more than likely to maim.

"Look at the guards, two wolves and two bitches," a male said as he stepped out of the trees. Behind him was Bella.

"Did the little fuck hole buy bodyguards?" Bella asked.

"I'd watch how you talk about my nephew," Celeste said as she stepped forward to stand with Kaïs.

Kaïs said something in French, and the two Herndon wolves bristled at it.

"Didn't they teach you to speak a language everyone can understand?" Bella asked.

"Who are you?" Celeste asked.

"We are here to bring the Alpha Mate back to the Hale Alpha," Bella said.

"You are not going anywhere with Stiles," Helena said.

"Sweetie, you aren't going to stop me," Bella said.

The Deputy walked up and stayed just behind Kaïs' other side. "You will not be touching him. You tell the Hale Alpha that he knows that there is a restraining order against him and his pack for Stiles, Spencer, Peter, Cora, and Ashley."

"And we are not Hale Pack," Bella said.

"Good. That means I can kill you," Celeste said.

"You couldn't even make me bleed," Bella said.

"Mom?" Robbie asked.

"What do you know of the Gajos pack?" Kaïs asked.

"The pack or the Hunters?" the male asked.

"Either, it's one and the same."

"Well, I've heard a lot of stories. Never wanna cross their Alpha Kaïs. He would rip someone apart for touching his family. Why?" the male asked.

"Kaïs Gajos at your service," Kaïs said before he flashed his eyes. Robbie's were next, yellow to his father's red.

Stiles could just see them.

"And my name is Celeste. These are our children, Robbie and Helena. Upstairs is my nephew, Stiles. So sweetie, are you sure you want to come and take Alpha Hale's Mate back to him and have to go through every single one of us and then the ones who are upstairs?" Celeste asked with her tone saccharine sweet.

"I don't believe you," Bella said.

Celeste pulled out her phone and Stiles her dialing. He waited to listen to who she was calling.

"Celeste," Derek said.

"Derek, you have two Herndon Betas here who say they were sent to collect Stiles. That violates the restraining order that was filed this morning. I know you were served with it. Noah told me personally."

"I did not send them. I would never send anyone to do that."

"They also don't believe that Stiles is my nephew."

"You were not allowed to leave the Preserve. I told you to not bother anyone."

"Everything will be better with him home where he belongs, and you can punish him for what he did," Bella said.

"He defended himself and his brother," Derek said.

"He's your brother," the male said.

"He's just as much Stiles', and I know that if you had tried to get up there and you had passed by the four Gajos there, another Gajos trained Hunter is up there along with my Uncle. They would have killed you and sent your body back in pieces. Get back here now, or I will be sending you home and revoking this alliance."

"That would get you killed, you and your pack," Bella said.

"No, it wouldn't," Celeste said.

"Celeste, Kaïs, I am sorry for what my visitors have done," Derek said.

"We are meeting tomorrow morning. I'll text you where when I talk to Stiles about it. We are taking control of this matter for the time being. The Sheriff has already ceded control."

"I understand."

Stiles went inside, pulling Ashley along with him. He didn't need to hear the rest of it. He found that everyone inside was getting ready for the four Gajos to come into the room.

Stiles sat down and pulled Spencer's feet into his lap. Ashley was sitting at his head on the arm of the couch, guarding him. Adam was across the room, sharpening a few daggers that he had pulled out of Peter's storage.

"Stiles, you look good," Kaïs said as he came into the loft. He was the first in with Celeste behind him, and then Helena and Robbie last.

"Thank you. I need a few minutes to calm down, and then I will greet you correctly."

"Spencer Hale, you look good. Do you consent to speak to us?" Celeste asked.

"Yes, everyone who is here is good to stay."

"This is our other two children, Franciszek and Helena Gajos," Celeste said to the room at large.

Stiles looked at Peter to see him raise his eyebrows at the name. Before Stiles could say a thing, Robbie was moving, and a dagger was flying at Peter. Peter caught it easily and laughed, nodding his head.

"I thought his name was Robbie?" Ashley asked.

"Thank you, Mother. I've kept that name from Peter for years now. My middle name is Robert. I got off easier than Mieczysław Genim over there," Robbie said.

"Traitor," Stiles said.

"There is a tradition in the family to name the males with horrible names," Noah said.

"Our middle names are not much better," Celeste said.

"How do you say that again?" Ashley asked.

"Mieczysław," Spencer said slow enough that Ashley could follow along.

"Yeah, I'd go by Stiles as well. From Stilinski, yes?" Ashley asked.

"Yup, a family nickname."

"We can catch up later, Stiles. We need to hear everything that happened."

Spencer went through his side of everything, then Ashley, Cora, Peter, and finally, Stiles. Chris had nothing to add except for the fact that he didn't trust the Herndon pack, especially since they had already made a play.

"Also, Jackson outed me as a magic user and a Shifter. It's not going to be long until the Herndon Alpha is told that."

"Jackson's the one that calls you a whore and the Alpha's hole to fuck?" Kaïs asked.

Stiles actually laughed out loud at that, and he felt the blow coming, but he didn't duck away from it.

"I'm sorry, but speaking with the weird as hell French/Polish accent that he has and saying that."

"I agree," Peter said.

Kaïs looked at Peter with a glare that would make lesser men wilt. Peter wasn't a lesser man, so he just stared back. Stiles was used to his two families acting like they were.

"What about Spencer?" Peter asked.

"We have Helena and Robbie escorting them to wherever they want until Spencer is fully healed, and it's safe for him to come home."

"I'm going as well," Cora said.

"Good. That's fine. More is merrier, and we mean that," Helena said.

Cora nodded her head before she grinned at Stiles with waggling eyebrows. Stiles laughed and shook his head. All of them were hanging on by a thread with how Derek was acting. It was strange as hell and horrible, really. Stiles still had no clue what had turned his Mate against him.

"Peter, do you have the information from the Seer?" Kaïs asked.

"Seer?" Peter asked. He looked really confused.

"Yes, Talia called me after Derek met a random Seer on the streets of San Francisco one time."

"Oh, my. I forgot about that, but..." Peter looked at Stiles, and his face went pale. "That's...What did Talia tell you about it?"

"Nothing really just asked my opinion on Seers in general. Why?"

"Derek met a girl when he was in high school. Feel in love in an instant. Talia and I assumed that he was his Mate. There are stories, though, about Mates gaining another when one dies. She was mauled by a feral Omega who was traveling through, and he caught her scent. Derek found her; he felt her pain, he said. She was in so much pain that he eased it, but he couldn't take all of her pain, and she died in his arms before the EMTs could get to her. She was human."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Noah asked.

"The Seer told Derek that he would lose his Mate to his own idiocy. He was supposed to go out with her that night but blew her off to go hang out with his friends. If he had been there, she might have lived. Talia and I assumed that it was the end of it. We only had Derek's word that she was his Mate, but now I wonder if the Seer wasn't talking about her but about Stiles. I never thought a thing of it after Derek told me that Stiles was his Mate as well. My grandfather had two Mates after his first was human and died of cancer. He loved them both."

Stiles knew of Paige. Derek had told him about her, but he had never said that Paige was his Mate. Stiles had felt the pull to Derek, but he had never thought about it too much. Derek had called him his Mate, and he hadn't thought a single thing different. Stiles thought about how everything could have been different if he had known that from the start. He wondered if that was what was wrong with Derek if he was reminded that he should have been loyal to his first Mate. There was a lot that thought that someone who lost a Mate should never move on.

Spencer dug his heels into Stiles' thigh, and he looked up at his brother before looking around. He saw that everyone was looking at him.

"Are you sure that Derek's your Mate?" Adam asked.

"I mean...I felt drawn to him. That night I was running away from Gerard, my fox led me to him. Not my Dad, who was heading to me but to him. I always assumed that it was because he was my Mate."

"Like drawn, how?" Robbie asked as he sat forward.

"A pull, and I felt safe around him, even though I didn't know who he was. I felt safe."

"Stiles, that's the pull to an Alpha, not a Mate," Robbie said.

"What?" Stiles asked.

* * *

Stiles was listening to the sounds of the Preserve around him. He was smack in the middle of a set of wards that would stop nearly everyone from getting to him. There were only three that could make it through since the wards repelled anyone that was considered Supernatural. Which didn't include people like his father, Spencer, or Adam. Magic-users weren't considered Supernatural by magic, which was kind of freaky.

When the steady fall of feet told him that someone had found his hiding spot, he stayed where he was. He did close his eyes, though, so that no reflection would happen. He figured that whoever it was would find him anyway, but it stopped it from happening all that quickly. Stiles knew that it was stupid that he had taken off with the Hale and Herndon packs out there and willing to take him back to Derek. The Herndons might just kill him.

A bag was set down just a few feet away from Stiles, but he didn't react.

"Well, that's a bit of a clusterfuck," Adam said.

Stiles twitched his ears. Adam laughed.

"You left without eating. Peter said you would most likely be in your fox form. So I brought along things that he said you like to eat in that form." Adam scooted a little closer until his thigh was pressed along Stiles' side. The touch felt kind of good. It was helping Stiles feel like he was being grounded. He was so adrift, and this was at least pulling him back down. He was quite happy with the touch. "I don't think that I like you quiet. I brought clothes as well, for when you feel like changing back. There is no rush on that."

Stiles listened to Adam as he dug around in the bag. The smell of chicken had Stiles finally looking at him. He had what looked like one of Peter's roasted chickens that was all shredded up. There were also a few veggies that were all in medium-sized chunks and then some fruit. It was the kind of meal that Stiles did love, in either form. Adam held out his hand, and it had a piece of chicken. Stiles moved to take it. It was not hot at all, but it wasn't like it had been taken from the fridge, which was a good thing.

"Celeste, Kaïs, and Noah are all talking alone about everything that they know. Trying to see what is going on with all of this. I'm actually kind of shocked that no one has ever asked this before. I know that Mates for Shifters is like this big thing, and it's very private, but given what Derek's been doing lately. I am unsure of what is going on with that Seer thing. If that was Paige or you for it. Either one is a toss-up at this point. I just want to know, if Derek knew that you weren't his Mate, why did he say it, and why did he think that you would believe him?"

Stiles wasn't even going to try and answer that. He licked at Adam's hand, and he laughed before grabbing another piece of chicken. Stiles moved when Adam wasn't going fast enough. He draped himself along his shins with his head on Adam's thighs, looking at him. Adam set the plate down and let Stiles go at feeding himself. The broccoli and potatoes were all cooked really well, just a few hints of seasonings. Stiles loved that things that would bother a fox didn't actually bother him. He kept on going until he was mostly full, with Adam filling up the plate two more times. Stiles knew that he hadn't been eating well the last little while, and he had dropped a little weight, weight that Peter said he really couldn’t afford to lose. Not with his magic. Stiles was happy with what he had just eaten, though, and there was still fruit.

Adam slowly hand-fed that to Stiles, letting Stiles lick up the juice.

"I heard a story once in Paris when Kaïs had us there hunting an Omega who was attacking kids. Thankfully no deaths, and we were able to catch him to find that he had been poisoned by some kind of implant. It released a strain of wolfsbane that kept him just on the edge of insanity. We got him cleaned up and fixed up. He stayed in the area, working for a local bakery and protecting the kids in the area as his penance. The families all welcomed him with open arms once he was not poisoned."

Stiles nipped at Adam's fingers since they were empty and had been for too long. Adam reached into the travel bowl and pulled out a fresh blackberry. Stiles snagged it and laid his head down, pressing it with his tongue to snap the little drupelets before he finally started to chew it when there were no juice bits left to pop. He waited for Adam to grab another. It looked like it was all that was left, blackberries, raspberries, and black raspberries. Adam wasn't snagging any of the latter, so someone had told him that those were his favorite.

"Anyway, I was there to check on him after he had been living there for about three years. I visited the bakery and found that he was dating. A young woman had moved to the area to help take care of her aging parents since her other sibling had to move away for work. They were adorable, and it was only after I had dined with them that they said they were Mates. I know that Kaïs and Celeste are Mates, it's the talk of everyone with that, but it's different with a couple that was together for a long time before seeing them and this new couple. They couldn't be apart. They didn't want to be. She came over to eat at the bakery for her lunch break every single day. She got an hour lunch just because of that. Her boss was happy about it. She would clock out for it and then clock back in and put in her eight hours."

Adam held out his hand with a few berries in it, none of them black raspberries. Stiles grumbled a little, but he ate them.

"Anyway, they were happy together for a long time, still married now with a few kids of their own. I never really got to see the two of you initially, but I know that you were underage, and Noah said that Derek never pushed. He didn't even push on the day you turned eighteen. That he let you work on what you wanted on your own. He says he is still unsure when you guys turned intimate since Derek slipped over a few times a week to sleep in your bed with you, always with the door open when he was home. Then when you graduated high school, you stayed with him until college. Then when you were back from your first year, you moved in with Derek. It's all...a little weird to me. You should have needed to move in with him when you graduated high school. When you were underage, the bond would not push. Magic is sentient in some ways, and that's one of them. So I find it weird that you didn't have that pull."

Stiles nipped at Adam's fingers to show that he didn't like where his thoughts were going.

"Oh, I'm sure that you were in love with him. I don't think that you would ever cheat on him. That first love, though, it stays with you. You are changed by that, but what I'm saying, Stiles, is that you have a lot of life ahead of you, and someone will be found that will love you for who you are without wanting to change you. Don't let Derek and whatever his massive issues are messing this up."

Stiles laid his head down again, looking out into the forest around them as he thought about what Adam said. The man booped him on the nose. Stiles turned to growl but found that he was holding onto a black raspberry. He licked out and snagged it, bringing it back to him while also licking all over Adam's fingers. Adam laughed and rubbed at Stiles' head to wipe the spit off. He started to scratch next, holding the bowl where Stiles could get the fruit himself while just scratching at Stiles' head. It felt good. It felt damned good. He ate the fruit as fast as he could until he was stuffed and then just laid there enjoying the feel of the sun on his back as it was setting.

Adam said nothing; he just was there so that Stiles wasn't alone. He liked it a lot. He really wanted to just settle in and just stay there, but he knew that he couldn't. He rolled to the side after a while and laid like that, still on Adam.

The chiming of a phone had Stiles jumping and looking around. It took a few seconds for the sound to actually penetrate his mind. Adam was looking at his phone.

"Your Dad would like you to come back to the loft. They want to talk to you."

Stiles stretched, taking his time to make sure that his body was ready for the run back while Adam packed up the food into the backpack. There were clothes in there, but Stiles wasn't ready to be in his skin. He snagged the dropped lid to something and held it up to Adam.

"Thanks. So you have two options. You change back to human, and we go together, or I carry you. I promised your father that I wouldn't let you be alone on the way back."

Stiles grumbled, but he still wasn't ready to be in his skin. He just sat down and glared at Adam.

"In your fur, it is," Adam said.

Once Adam had the backpack on his back, he leaned down and scooped up Stiles, settling him into his arms to where he was being carried against his chest, and Stiles could see where they were going. Stiles' size meant that it was hard for people to carry him like that, but Adam did the entire way back to the loft. When they neared the area, Helena appeared out of nowhere to slip in beside Adam.

"He didn't bite," Helena said.

"No, just nipped when I wasn't feeding him fast enough. He was really good for me, actually."

"That means he likes you but not enough to be an asshole. I used to have the worst luck getting him to stay in place when I was the one babysitting him. When we were visiting, that is. Robbie was horrible and would talk him into doing stupid shit. I hated them both."

"I can see that. I've seen what he does over the last little while. The pranks are hell."

Stiles laughed; the sound coming out of his fox body was weird. He saw his father at the door to the ground floor and leaped out of Adam's arms to take off for his father. He rubbed all along his pants and waited for him to touch him before he darted inside and headed up the stairs to get to the loft to get back into his skin. He took his time getting dressed, making sure that he didn't have anything on his person. He tried to figure out how to voice what he was thinking. He didn't know how to, though.

Warm and soft clothes were what he wanted, so he dug around to find some of Peter's clothes in the dresser. He wanted pack scents around him, not the smell of just himself. He found a sweater of Peter's that he loved and pulled that on over his T-shirt. He snagged a pair of thick sleep pants next before heading down to see what was going on. Spencer held out a hand and made a grabby motion, so Stiles went over to him. Spencer slowly sat up so that Stiles could sit down, and then he moved down the couch to where he could lay his head in his lap.

"Adam's going to run the shop for the most part in Spencer's place," Noah said.

"Okay."

"It's all going to be the same as before, though; no one goes anywhere alone. Order food in and never eat it until you make sure it's safe. We can't trust that they aren't going to make a move."

"Poison? Derek poison someone?"

"No, Bella and her pack. Kaïs and I will be staying. Cora, Ashley, Spencer, Helena, and Robbie are going to New York and heading to the house. It's big enough that they won't feel trapped, and they can play with the dogs as much as they want. It's the best option," Kaïs said.

"I agree," Noah said.

"I do as well," Peter said.

"Yes." Stiles agreed as well, but he didn't like his pack going so far away. If he wasn't Derek's Mate, was he still part of their pack?

"Stiles," Peter said, and he waited for Stiles to look at him before going on. "You will always be pack. Your ours, and we are not letting you go, sweetheart."

Stiles nodded his head. He wasn't losing the pack he cared about, but what else was he going to lose?


	9. Chapter 8

# Chapter 8

### July 2024

Stiles wasn't sure what was going to happen, but it wasn't going to be good. He knew that. He looked at the group that was assembled.

Celeste was standing in the middle of the circle with Kaïs standing beside her. Stiles hoped that nothing bad happened, but he had no clue who Derek was bringing with him. He really hoped that none of them were from the Herndon pack.

"Incoming," Adam called out.

Stiles moved over to stand by Celeste and Kaïs as Adam came over to stand with them. He watched as Derek came into the clearing with Scott, Boyd, and Malia with him. Behind them was Bella and the one main Herndon guy that Stiles really fucking hated. He took a few seconds to look at Derek. He looked like shit. He looked worse than Stiles had ever seen him. He looked like he was at the end of a week of exams and still had another week to go on that. Stiles wanted to comfort him.

"Stiles," Derek said.

Stiles didn't say a thing. He just looked at the two Herndons and tried not to kill them. The desire to kill them was strong. He wasn't a violent man. He had a few violent tendencies, but they were verbal more than anything. He fought as a last resort, and it was something that his father had pushed into him. He looked at those who he used to call family and felt nothing.

Malia gave him a sly little grin, and Stiles didn't react at all. He knew that there was a reason why Malia hadn't come to her father when they had all left. She was her father's daughter, and it seemed she was staying on the inside. He was okay with that. He figured that Peter had some way to keep in contact with her that no one else knew about. It seemed that she had taken Cora's spot with the pack.

"Are these the only ones you are bringing?" Celeste asked.

"Yes," Derek answered.

"Good. And who else is with you?" Celeste looked at Bella.

"Donny Herndon is a cousin of Alpha Herndon, and you know Bella," Derek said.

"Welcome. With me, I have myself, Celeste Gajos, my husband, and Mate Kaïs. Adam Calavera, estranged from his family. Stiles Stilinski, I'm sure everyone knows. So we are here to discuss everything that has happened."

"Where is Spencer? Why is he not here?" Derek asked.

"You have no right to ask where he is," Peter said as he stepped into the clearing.

"Also, Peter Hale, who was just finishing sweeping the area and it's clear of everyone but us."

"Why are we not at the Nemeton?" Bella asked.

"Because no one goes there without the Nemeton letting it happen. This is an old area that the Hales have used for centuries to meet with people who come to the area to talk with them, and they don't trust them on their land. I figured it worked for this." Peter walked over to stand beside Stiles.

"Where is Spencer?" Derek asked again.

"He's gone," Stiles said as he stepped forward.

"Gone?" Derek asked.

"Yes. He went away with Cora and Ashley, where he can rest and heal up from what you did to him. He's not coming home until it's safe for him to do so."

"You don't get to decide what happens to my pack," Derek said.

"I am Alpha Mate...oh wait, I'm not. I'm not your Mate, and I never was; that was a lie you told me."

Derek looked at him like he was shocked. "No, you are my Mate. I got two Mates. You feel it."

"Dude, I feel an Alpha bond, not a Mate one," Stiles said.

Derek looked shocked as hell about that. He looked at Peter next before looking back at Stiles. "No, that's impossible. I feel the Mate bond. I feel it down to my bones."

"Then how the hell could you treat me like shit?" Stiles asked. He didn't realize he had been stepping forward until he was tugged back closer to where his group was. He nodded at Kaïs and then focused on Derek again. "If I was your Mate, how could you let anyone ever call me a whore or your hole to fuck without making sure that they never did it again. Jackson's been trying to drive a wedge between us for a while. I thought it was just him being pissed about me having a successful business when he has a pity job from his father. He couldn't put me down any other way, so he did it that way."

"Jackson's been handled," Derek spat out.

"Really? What happened to him?" Celeste asked.

"He's been made aware of not saying anything about my Mate again. He's got more issues than just his job."

"Lydia left him," Boyd said.

"I'm not shocked," Stiles said.

Boyd nodded his head. He looked at Derek and then at Stiles. Stiles could see the look on his face that said he didn't get paid enough to deal with this shit.

"He told him in front of the pack that she wished she would have gone with what she wanted freshman year instead of going after the boy who was the most popular for sports. Said at least then she wouldn't have been left with debt and a husband who went after his boyfriend more than his wife."

"His boyfriend?" Peter asked.

"Yes, Jackson and Lydia have had an open relationship for a while."

"So Lydia is Parrish's girlfriend," Stiles said.

Boyd nodded his head.

"Go, Lydia," Stiles said. He was glad that she was getting something out of it. He knew that they had been talking more, being some of the few non-Shifters in the pack. Parrish was his own kind of breed with being a Hellhound. Stiles had tried to find out a lot of information on it, but he kept getting distracted. He had assumed smelling them on each other meant that they had been researching together. Lydia was a boss at it for the times that Stiles wasn't able to help.

"I spent the night talking with Stiles," Kaïs started as he stepped up to stand beside Stiles. "I discussed the bond with him. And yes, we agreed that it was a bond to a compatible Alpha that he felt, the pull to someone who was good for him. He had never felt it before because none of the Alphas in the city were ones that would be good for him. He never knew what it felt like, so when you called him your Mate, he thought that it was what he was feeling."

"I feel it though; it's just like Paige," Derek said.

"Adam is our expert on that," Celeste said. She cleared her throat. "He can see what the bond looks like between you two. Derek, you have to agree that you've not been treating Stiles like your Mate. Even the little bit that he's actually told us means that there is something wrong going on. There is someone who has messed with you. Some spells can make bonds feel different than they are."

"I love him," Derek said.

"Well, that's good because the bonds can't make someone love each other. Stiles loves you as well, but this right here, it's hurting him."

Derek looked at Stiles, and his eyes were full of pain. Stiles wanted to go to him, pull him in, and hold him tight. Adam was right that Stiles had fallen in love with Derek, but he wasn't sure what it meant anymore because he couldn't stay with this man. He couldn't be happy with him. He would never be happy with him again.

"Derek, do you want to come over and have Adam look at you? I will NOT be sending Stiles to your side."

"Sure. Boyd. keep them back." Derek stepped over the divide.

"This is wrong; you don't know what this magic-user is going to do to you," Donny said.

Derek turned back to look at the two that were no in his pack. "I trust him with my life. I always have. He saved me from Hunters a decade ago when they thought that I was the one killing people when I was visiting Stiles at college. He would never harm me. I know that."

"It's your life," Donny said.

Stiles felt like baring his teeth at the man, but he didn't. He focused on Derek, though, and waited for him to get close enough to where he would be allowed to go over and meet him. Adam was the first to move; he stepped up as soon as Derek got closer. Stiles followed and waited for Adam to tell him what to do. He nodded his head, and Stiles reached out. He gripped Derek's wrist, and Derek did the same. It wasn't holding hands; thankfully, Stiles didn't think that he could do that.

Adam said a few words under his breath and then laid a strand of flowers that were woven together over their joined arms. Stiles could see the color of the bond coming over them. He knew what it was. It was the bond between a Beta and a strong Alpha. It was like saying that Stiles was the most loyal member of the pack. It wasn't doing the greatest, though. It really wasn't as it was pale and sickly.

"Who told you that what you felt for Paige was a Mate bond?" Adam asked.

"I...I felt the pull and my mother only ever told me about the Mate bond. She told me how it would make my heart feel, how my wolf would want to be there with them all the time." Derek's words were barely a whisper, but they were there. He looked up into Stiles' eyes, and there was such a well of pain there. "I'm sorry."

"You don't need to be. It was an honest mistake. There is a lot you have done after that you do need to fess up to. Just...be a good man, Derek. Take the time to figure out why you let your pack do what they did to me. It got worse after you left, but you fucking left. You left, and you didn't even tell me. You didn't even respond to me."

Derek's head turned, and even though Stiles couldn't see his eyes, he could see that Derek was looking at Scott. Stiles had wondered if Scott had a lot to do with it. His job at Deaton's veterinary practice was newer. After trying to get into vet school for a while, he had settled for being a Veterinary technician since he hadn't got into veterinary school to become a doctor. He had been allowed in to become a technician, though. So close to what he wanted but so far away as well. He still got to help animals, though, and it was the best.

"I'll do some soul searching, and maybe someday soon we can meet up and talk?" Derek asked.

"Of course. First, though, you have got to figure out how to get Spencer's forgiveness; mine is contingent on that." Stiles knew that he was letting Derek off lightly, but he did love him, and he didn't want to hurt him like Derek had hurt him. The urge was there. That bit of pettiness would mean that Stiles could have fun, but he didn't give into it.

"Okay," Derek said.

"That's it? It's all forgiven? Derek, this boy challenged you. He took your brother away from you," Bella said.

Derek dropped Stiles' hand and turned around to look at Bella before he stepped closer to her. "You've been the little demon on my shoulder for too long. I banish you from Beacon County; you and your pack are never welcome on my land. The other packs of the county will agree with me."

"You think that any of them will follow you after what you have done to this pack? To your supposed Mate?" Donny asked.

"They will be with me backing him," Stiles said.

"And us," Kaïs said.

"You are all weak, relying on magic to help protect you. You will lose everything that you love." Bella scoffed at them and then took off.

"Boyd, make sure all four of them leave. Peter?" Derek asked.

"I'll gladly go," Peter said.

Stiles watched as they left, trailing behind where the Herndons had gone.

"That's not the end of that. Derek, what do you want to do?" Kaïs asked.

"They are going to come, and they are going to attack," Derek said.

"They want the Nemeton," Stiles said.

"What?"

Stiles felt all eyes in the clearing on him. He laughed a little and looked at Adam. "That's why they were pissed about not meeting at the Nemeton. Other packs who guard a Nemeton meet all people they are meeting at the Nemetons, but the Hales has always kept its location a secret from other people. There were wards that I keep up to this day that keep it all hidden from anyone who is not pack from finding it. It's why the area had been at peace for as long as it has. Those who hold and protect the Nemeton hold the area. The Nemeton shows allegiance to those who protect it, and it doesn't really care about if the people who do are good or bad. So no one finding out where the Nemeton is, means that it's protected, and it protects the Hales in return."

"And you think it's the main goal of this? Break up the Hale Pack to take over the Nemeton?" Kaïs asked.

"I would bet my Jeep. The thing is that they are severely underestimating how much I protect the Nemeton. Unless they killed me, they aren't getting near it. Those I see as a threat will not make it there, and right now, most of the Hale Pack is a threat. None of them will be able to lead them to it."

"So they are going to kill the whole pack," Celeste said.

"Yes."

"Then let's get ready for war. Alpha Hale, your permission to bring more Gajos pack onto your land?" Celeste asked.

"Bring as many as you would like. I will take all the help that I can get in protecting my land." Derek looked at Stiles. "In protecting my family."

Celeste nodded her head.

Stiles waited for Derek and his pack to leave the area. He could feel them leaving. He turned to Celeste. "I don't want him to die."

"He won't. We will protect him like we do our family. Even if he tries to martyr himself. He'll live. I promise."

"I want to be alone for a little while. I'm going to go to the Nemeton and settle there. Before I leave, I'll text to have someone escort me back. I'll be going in human skin but can't promise that I won't shift to the fox at some point."

"Of course. Adam will stay close enough that he can protect you if needed but far enough away to give you privacy." Kaïs softly smiled at Stiles. He pulled Celeste with him as they left the area.

Stiles looked at Adam, who was holding the strand of flowers. He was hooking the two ends together and muttered something over them before holding them out to Stiles. Stiles cocked an eyebrow at him. Adam stepped up and laid the flowers on Stiles' head. There was some kind of spell on it to help bolster Stiles' emotions. He was okay with that as he felt raw right now.

"It should also change and follow you as a fox if you do end up in fur. I'll stay at the edge and then back up until you text me that I'm far enough away, but I will escort you to the Nemeton."

"Of course," Stiles said.

* * *

Stiles kind of missed the days where he could lay on top of the Nemeton. Sometimes leaning against it didn't have the same effect. He had to look up to see what the sky looked like. The sky was nice and calm, which was good. A chuffing noise had Stiles looking to the side, and he saw a fox there. He smiled at it and held out his hand. It seemed that the Nemeton was trying to figure out how to cheer him up. The fox stalked over to him, acting like he was prey.

When the fox was just a few feet away, it pounced on him. Stiles laughed and tipped over to the side so the fox would keep on playing. It took little time at all until Stiles was stripping off his clothes and letting his form take him over.

Playing like this was something he hadn't done in a long time, not with other foxes in the Preserve. He ran and tumbled and got so many scratches from brambles that he fell into, but it felt good. He kept it up until he was hungry for food. The other foxes were all settled down with kills eating, and Stiles stayed back from that, but he watched; he made sure nothing came to take their kills. The skulk was formed by the Nemeton to keep the Preserve in balance when the wolves left the area.

The highest rank of predators in the area was the Shifters, but it wasn't like they could live there all the time. So the Nemeton had drawn in the foxes and helped them become a large family unit. Stiles wondered if the Nemeton had also don't it as a protection for Stiles. The way that the Nemeton connected with him, Stiles was pretty sure that it had been waiting for him for a long time.

Stiles could hear Adam on the edges of his hearing, but the other foxes weren't reacting to him, so he was sure that they were safe for now. He settled in and watched his friends. He wasn't big on raw things, even in this form, so he just protected.

A nap was next, and Stiles could get behind that. As the others finished eating, they came over and laid around Stiles. He enjoyed the feel of it. Having this weird little pack of actual animals all around him. He snagged a bit of berry when one of the foxes dropped some at his head. He then closed his eyes.

The feel of someone else coming close had Stiles waking up. He looked around and saw no one but the smell was the Herndons. Stiles jerked to his feet and nudged the fox closest to him. He pushed his urgency into them, getting up and running away. Stiles had ways to hide; they didn't. Stiles knew that if they got a hold of a fox, they would kill it in hopes of pulling Stiles out.

Stiles led the charge away from where they were and away from the Herndons. He headed toward where Adam was. Someone was feeding information to the Herndons, and Stiles really wanted to know who it was.

Adam was ready with a bow out and an arrow nocked in it. He didn't fire at Stiles, but he did at the ones behind. Since Adam was close to the Nemeton, so Stiles urged the foxes there. Stiles stayed with Adam, though.

"You are trespassing."

The two Herndons were in Beta shift form, which was odd considering that they would have had better luck in full shift form.

"Give us the fox, and we will leave. He'll give us what he wants. The Hale Alpha would do a lot to get him back. My Alpha would even make sure that the fox never left him." Donny's voice was weird with the fangs in his mouth, but Stiles just listened as he talked.

"That's against all laws in this country."

"And what do the laws of man mean to us?" Bella asked.

"The law of Shifters does mean a lot to even the likes of you. I would leave now as the Hale Alpha commanded. Or I will put this into you and not even think a thing of it."

"You wouldn't kill a Shifter; you would be gutted by the Hale Alpha for it."

"You want to kidnap a man he loves. Do you think he would do a thing to me?"

"He might love him, but he hates him as well. He would be happy to be rid of him."

Stiles wanted to throw up at the anger and hatred that Bella was putting off as she spoke.

"Celeste?" Adam asked.

"Leg," Celeste said. Her voice was tinny, and Stiles noticed that Adam had an earpiece in.

Adam let loose with the bolt, and it embedded itself into Donny's thigh. The Shifter howled in pain.

"You have about 48 hours to find the cure, so I suggest you get him home. No one here in town will help you. You've outstayed your welcome, and no one is going to go against Stiles or Derek on that."

Bella looked like she was going to lunge at him, but she stopped.

"Also, I don't ever carry more than one of each kind of arrow. I don't have a second of that strand on me."

"You will regret this; I will come back and kill everyone that you love and make you watch."

"You aren't even the first one to say that. My mother told me that when I ran away from home and yet, here I am."

Bella hissed and picked up Donny before running away.

Stiles watched them leave, his body tense enough that he was actually in a little pain from it. The Nemeton told him when she was gone from the area. Only then did he change back. The flower crown was still on his head, and he smiled when he saw Adam smiling at it.

"So as soon as I realized why the foxes were all coming at me, I called Celeste. She's been made aware of a few things since you've been out here."

"I need to do a few things that will protect the Nemeton no matter the outcome of what is to come. I want you to stand guard while I do. I don't trust that the other two are not out and about."

"Sure, then we are heading to your shop. Peter's there as well as Kaïs."

"Fine." Stiles found his clothes around the Nemeton and put them on, pulling off the flower crown just long enough to put his upper body clothes on. He touched the flowers on the pain part before smiling.

It took two hours for Stiles to do what he needed to do about protecting the Nemeton. He had his goal set, and he wasn't going to stop it.

* * *

The shop was strange without Spencer there. Stiles didn't like it; he didn't like not having his brother around. He settled into his armchair and looked around. The shop was fully stocked. When he was bored, it was never good so making things was a good thing. He had spent all afternoon making what was needed for the next while.

Peter and shoved food at him. Stiles had no appetite; it wasn't strange, though, given everything. He was more than pleased with everything that was going on or how it was being handled.

The bell-ringing had Stiles looking up. It was a strange man who entered the shop, and Stiles did not know him at all.

"May we help you?" Peter asked.

"I came to talk to Mage Stilinski," the man said.

"And who are you to ask for an audience with the Alpha Mate of the Hale Pack?" Adam asked.

"I am no one and everyone," the man said.

Stiles snorted. It drew the man's gaze to him.

"You fool no one, old man," Stiles said.

The man bowed, and when he came back up, he looked different. He was the man that Stiles knew.

"Gerard, this is my uncle, Peter, and the ward of my aunt Adam Calavera. They are my bodyguards during this difficult time. Now, why are you here? You trained me and retired to Tibet. You've not set foot in America in a very long time." Stiles stood up and walked over to where Gerard was standing.

"Beacon Hills is the center of a lot of issues at the moment. The head of the order is worried."

"I see, and he sent you?"

"Order?" Peter asked.

"How do you trust?" Gerard asked.

"With my life and my father's. Why?"

"There are more than the Herndons on their way here. The Calaveras are on their way as well. They see the Argent and Gajos claim to the area as lesser than theirs since the Argents are so faded from the world, and the Gajos have not spread this far."

"Well, it looks like I'll be staking that claim to the area for my pack then," Adam said.

"Adam, no. You would be stuck here."

"And I have no issue with that, Stiles," Adam said. He smiled. "Your Aunt would not fault me for staying."

"Your Aunt?" Gerard asked.

"Oh, yeah, that's right. I was still keeping that mostly a secret at the time. My mother's sister is Celeste Gajos."

"So the Gajos have a very big prior claim to the area," Gerard said.

"Yes, I was Gajos pack before I was Hale. I will make this known when the Calaveras come to the area. I will not abide by them coming here."

"You will chase them out?" Gerard asked.

"Yes."

"I came to check on you and tell you that. I have not been given the okay to attack unless I am attacked."

"You need not stay, Gerard." Stiles stood up and walked over to him. He hugged him tight, and the man nodded at him. "Go back to your pack."

"If you need me, Stiles, just call. You have my number. I am a little upset you didn't over this."

"Why? I have this under control. My family is protecting me, both sides of it. If you would, please make a stop in New York. Robbie and Helena Gajos would love to meet you. Also, my little brother was attacked, and I want to see how he's doing. Mentally."

"Who attacked him?"

"His brother, Peter said.

"Oh, dear. I will head there next. I have a flight out of San Francisco booked; I'll swap it around. You never have had an easy life, have you, Stiles?"

"No"

Gerard kissed Stiles on the cheek and scented him.

Stiles knew that he would have to explain to everyone who he was, but right now, it was good to be around his mentor again. Stiles hadn't seen him since he graduated. They emailed at least monthly. If the rumors got to him about what was going on, that meant that someone here in Beacon Hills was reporting to him. Stiles didn't fault him for that.

"You need help, promise."

"I will. I won't become another fox that's captured and used, Gerard. I promise you. I will never let myself go that far without asking for help."

Gerard was gone a second later, out the door.

"You talked of a Gerard, but I never knew that he was like you."

"Yes, a teacher was found for me. He's part of a pack that moved to Tibet just a few years before I went into high school. He was more than happy to come toYale to teach. He has enough of a following as a Mage that it was easy for him to be touted as bored with retirement. No one really paid attention that he started the years I did and left the year I did as well. Another thing started the year before me, but she only outed herself as a Werefox my second year. She learned as much as she could."

"Celeste said that Werefox magic wasn't like any other magic around."

"No, it's really not. The closest is Sparks. Those who have good control of their belief and wishes. Werefoxes, if they don't have control, can wish a lot of things if they are not bound."

"Bound?" Peter asked.

"I..." Stiles looked away. He walked over to the door and looked outside before he headed to the desk. He looked at the list of people who were still coming to pick up orders. "How about we head out to dinner. The three of us? When we close the shop? I have a place I can make sure that no one can listen in."

"Sure, but are you sure that we should talk at all in public?"

"Why not? I can make sure that no one can listen in."

The orders were all easy and ready to go, so Stiles busied himself with more busy work on things that he didn't need to be doing. It would at least keep him from doing anything stupid like gushing about it there. Anyone could walk in, and Peter would be pissed, but the secret wasn't secret anymore.

Stiles took them to a restaurant that he loved but didn't get to go to that often. He used to go with Cora a lot, but they had stopped going, and Stiles couldn't really figure out why. There was a lot about his life that he found out that he had just let slide for some reason. He needed to sit down and figure out what he liked that he stopped doing and figure out why.

"This is...cozy," Adam said as they were led into a back room. The place had a bunch of little rooms all over, which worked for parties and the like.

"The owner was visiting family in West Virginia and found a place that had a set up like this, and when they needed to do a remodel of this place after a kitchen fire, they adopted it. I like it. This is the room that allows for the best magical wards."

Stiles took a few minutes to get his wards set up. He smiled as he felt a little echo of the ones he had set a few years ago.

"So what is this about binding? I thought that you told me everything when it came to Werefoxes."

"No, I told you what I needed you to know at the time. It wasn't about trusting you. It's about protection. Werefoxes are rare as hell and come from certain bloodlines. Those were wiped out through the actions of Hunter's and humans of the past. Werefoxes can be magically bound to follow all orders of someone. Think of it like a Kanima. My magic would only work at the will of the one I am bound to. At first, it was to control Werefoxes when they were uncontrollable. Our magic is attached to our will, and to a large extent, our emotions. The person we were bound to was usually a parent or a sibling who had good control of their emotions. Yet, some used us horribly. Some Hunters bound us to them. They developed a way to do it without our agreement. We were little more than slaves. It's why Hunters are rarely told about us anymore. It's been wiped from most lore books, but some Hunters who follow the older ways have verbal histories of it."

"I need a lot more alcohol," Adam said.

"I hope they have good alcohol that can work on me."

Stiles knew that the two of them would get everything out of him about this. Everything he hadn't even told Derek. He didn't mind, but damn, were they going to watch him like a fucking hawk once the Calaveras got to town.


	10. Chapter 9

# Chapter 9

### July 2024

Stiles stretched and looked at Peter before looking at Adam. They were going on a run. Stiles was going to be in his fox form, so he was naked at the moment in the back of the shop. It was nearing dark, so the shop was closed for the day. The last week had been pretty normal if one considered living with Adam and Peter normal. It was a new normal.

Though, Stiles had it easy. Parrish was glued to Noah, and it was funny to Stiles as that meant that where Parrish was, Lydia and the kids were. Jackson was on an epic sulk after his wife left him for her boyfriend. Stiles found it funny as hell. Jackson had moved into the Hale house, and Lydia was all but living with Stiles' father. Noah was enjoying the kids that were there. They were staying in Stiles' room, which they liked. Stiles checked in every day with him. If his father wasn't at work, he was escorted around by Parrish.

The Hale Pack gave everyone connected with Stiles a wide berth. Stiles wasn't sure what Derek was thinking about that, but he was glad that all of them were trying to step back from it all. He hoped that more did a little soul searching. He just also hoped that Jackson didn't get it into his head that Stiles was the reason his life was fucked.

"Stiles," Scott said as Stiles stepped out into the back of the store.

Stiles looked at his former best friend and saw that he didn't look good.

"What do you want?" Stiles asked.

"Your guard dogs aren't needed."

"Wow, that's just...you know as much as you hate it when we fight anyone who hates Hunters and they call you a dog, you can just spout it without a worry, huh?" Stiles saw that Scott had something in his hand, and he wondered if he thought that he could actually do a damned thing to him and get by Adam and Peter.

"You need to bring Spencer back," Scott said.

"Not Cora, just Spencer?"

Scott looked a little shocked at that.

"Yeah, that's what I thought. Derek's moping because Spencer won't respond to him? Look, I didn't send him away. He was given several options, and he went with the one that didn't end up with Ashley killing someone. Spencer will come back when he wants to. He will talk to his brother when he wants to. I make sure that he texts Derek every day, but I will not make him do a damned thing other than that. He's a fucking adult, and he deserves to be respected as one."

"Even if you refuse to actually step up, you are Derek's Mate."

"No, Scott, I'm not."

"You took his bite," Scott pointed out. He looked like he had won a big argument on that.

"Yup, and it's gone. It disappeared on me. Derek's might be there, but I don't feel that from him anymore. His mark could only leave if he had stopped loving me. So try again, asshole." Stiles just wanted to bash his head in to get him to understand, but that wouldn't work either. He had tried before, the metaphorical route, not actually smashing his head in route.

Scott looked like he was at a loss for words. Which was a rare occurrence but not something that Stiles was used to seeing anymore.

"Stiles, just come home."

"No. I refuse to come home. Derek's not tried to talk to me."

"You are just pouting because the pack doesn't like you. We really don't like you now."

"And I should just allow it? I should just let myself be degraded and treated like shit because your Alpha is in a mood?"

"Yes," Scott said.

"No. Go away, Scott. Before I call the Sheriff's department about the restraining order. Let's see how you do once in jail for the night and then a court appearance in the morning."

Scott scoffed and just crossed his arms over his chest. He gave Stiles a look that said that he didn't believe that he would call the cops on him. Then around the corner came Parrish and Jones.

"Scott McCall, you are under arrest for violating a restraining order against the whole of the Hale Pack," Parrish said.

"You are really going to do this, Jordan?" Scott asked.

"You seem to be under the impression that just because you are pack, that means that I am not going to do my job, and that's just wrong. Derek's still under investigation, and they are trying to figure out what to do about it. Spencer made his statements about it to those who need it and is willing to appear over a video connection if it goes to court. Don't even start with anything about Spencer not doing it. You don't attack humans in the pack like that. He'll be lucky to save his job."

"It's pack business, not the police's," Scott said. He looked at Stiles. "Just like this is."

Parrish stepped up to Scott and forced him around, cuffing him in the ones that were charmed to make sure that even Shifters couldn't break them. Scott ranted that Parrish was just being stupid as he was led around the building's front and into what Stiles assumed was their waiting cruiser.

Stiles looked at Adam and Peter and sighed. Jones cleared his throat.

"You guys go and do your run and then stop back into the station to give a statement. No rush. He'll be in holding all night long."

"Sure thing," Stiles said. He gave Jones a salute and then looked into the trees. He was happy that it was even darker now. He needed the darkness to hide the tears that were falling. He was sure that Peter could smell the salt, but he hoped that the man said nothing about them. He took off, knowing that Peter and Adam would catch up. Stiles stopped just about fifty feet into the Preserve when he realized that he knew exactly why Jones had told him that he could come in after their run. "I'm naked."

"Yes, Stiles, you are. Are you going to shift?" Adam asked.

"Fucking hell," Stiles said. He let go of the human side and let his fox take over. The change was as easy as breathing. It was always so easy for him to stay in this form; there were times that Stiles was pretty sure that he could live like this and never go back to being human. He wouldn't do that to the people he loved, though. He was going to put Peter and Adam through their paces for not reminding him that he was naked when he was dealing with Scott, Parrish, and Jones. He was sure that the whole station was going to know about it. The Herndons had spread the word before they left the week before that Stiles was a Werefox. It was like a parting fuck you from them, and Stiles wasn't happy. Though it did mean that a few people he didn't like gave him a wide berth. He had gone from the weird magic guy to someone who was also trained in fighting.

Stiles pushed himself to the limit. He ran until his body was aching, but he made sure that Peter could keep up at least, and Adam was good at tracking, so he always found them again. There wasn't much to do except run until there was nothing left in his brain.

On the way back, since they were in the distant parts, Stiles smelled something. It was blood, but it wasn't animal blood from a fresh kill but from a person. Stiles stopped in his tracks, making Peter trip over him. He went rolling and landed on his front in the dirt and leaves. He didn't say a thing, though, as he got to his feet. He was looking the same way Stiles was, which was towards the area where the blood smell was coming from. Under the blood was another smell. Boyd and pack.

Stiles took off like a rocket, heading toward where Boyd was. He got close and saw that Boyd wasn't moving. He skidded to a stop with Peter right behind him. Adam was on their heels, and he nearly tripped when he tried to stop quickly. Boyd was unconscious and lying there bleeding out. The way that the wounds were slow to heal meant Alpha. There was a scent over it all, the same scent that Stiles had gotten from Bella and Donny. The Herndon Alpha was in Beacon Hills, and he had started a war with this simple act.

"Peter, pick him up and get him out of here," Adam said.

Peter moved and picked up Boyd, carrying him as he ran as fast as he could. Adam looked around the area and then waved for Stiles to go with Peter. Stiles yipped at him, and Adam nodded. Stiles wasn't going to leave him there. He wasn't going to just leave Adam to be attacked if the Herndons were around. Stiles would be able to take the Sheriff's department back here as quickly as possible. He wasn't going to let this go unanswered. Boyd wasn't fully his pack anymore, but Stiles had grown up around him. He was a friend.

The hospital was situated just kind of perfect for them. They were able to get out of the trees and close to it before anyone noticed them. Adam was the first through the ER doors, and he grabbed a gurney and scooted it out. There were shouts, but those died off as Peter was seen dropping Boyd down onto it.

"Have the cops been called?" Melissa McCall asked as she stepped close.

"No, we were trying to get here as soon as possible. He was found in the Preserve, so call Noah," Adam said.

Melissa stared at Adam for a few seconds as the rest of the hospital staff started to work on Boyd.

"Call, Noah, Melissa," Peter said.

"Yes." Melissa turned away, but her eyes darted down to where Stiles was. Her eyebrow cocked at him, and he just ignored her. He wasn't too excited by her being there, but Stiles could deal with it.

Peter moved to sit down beside Stiles, pulling Stiles to lean into him as he dialed Derek.

"Peter," Derek said as a greeting.

"Adam, Stiles, and I were running in the Preserve. We found Boyd attacked. Herndons by the smell and his wounds are not healing up as fast as they should."

"So, Alpha," Derek said.

"Yes."

"Melissa just called Noah. I will make sure that Scott doesn't bother Stiles anymore. I know that you have to give a statement; is it okay for myself and Malia to come there?"

"Yes, the restraining order is not in place here or at the Sheriff's station."

"I'm aware, Peter, but I wanted to make sure that Stiles was okay with us being there."

Peter looked down at Stiles, who just gave Peter a look. "Yes. He's in fox form at the moment. He was letting himself have a little bit of fun."

"I'll bring something from here for him. His father has a few of his clothes here."

"That would be great."

Stiles nudged at Peter's arms when Melissa came outside again.

"Derek's at the station with Noah. Parrish and Jones are coming with him. The rest are heading to the Preserve. They would like an escort."

"I can go," Adam said.

Stiles looked at him.

"I made a GPS marker on my phone for there. It can get me there pretty easily. You two stay here."

Adam looked around and found the point they had come out of Preserve from. "Text me where they are setting up!" He was gone.

Stiles wanted to go after him. It wasn't safe. Adam could take care of himself, but the Herndons were already showing what they were made of. They were willing to nearly kill someone from the pack before even telling them that they were in town. It was an act of war.

The two Sheriff's cruisers sped into the ER's parking lot, and Stiles was just happy to see his father. Stiles rushed to him, and he didn't fight it when his father picked him up.

"Jones has your clothes. Parrish and Derek will talk to Peter. He's been reinstated with the case against him on hold. I need him on staff to be able to take care of incidents when they happen. The pack has been made aware that they need to stay on lockdown. Lydia and the kids are safe at my place, and Malia is heading there."

Stiles nodded his head. He was happy about the clothes. He jumped out of his father's arms when they were in the room used to get statements from people at the ER. He changed into his clothes with ease and was glad to not be naked too long in front of his father. There was still something about that which had him feeling creepy.

"So tell us what happened and why none of you are injured," Noah started.

"Well, we only found him. We were on a run, and I smelled blood. It was not an animal, so I started to follow it, and after a few minutes, I realized that it was Boyd. So we headed there even faster. The smell of the Herndons was thick in the area. But none of them were around. Adam told Peter to pick up Boyd, and we left. That's pretty much it."

"And no fighting on him being a Deputy again?" Noah asked.

"No, I understand why you did it, and the restraining order that was placed on him has the caveat that if he's in uniform and happens to be where I am, I cannot fight it unless it's happening more than it should. Outside of him coming to me, he never came around much when he was on duty, and I rarely just saw him out and about." Stiles wasn't afraid of Derek. He mainly wanted the pack away from him during all of this."

"How does everything fare?" Jones asked.

"Good. Spencer's healing up well, and he's missing home, but he knows why he's away. He's a good target, and if he's injured, that means none of us will react normally, and that would give the Herndons the opening they need. They aren't going to get away with this. The pack might be divided but Boyd's pretty damned popular, and no one will be happy he's hurt. So yeah, they have courted war, and they don't understand what they have done."

"No, they don't. And you are not injured?"

"No, they weren't around. Well, they might have been, but they chose not to interact with us. We didn't stick around to hunt or find anything."

Noah's phone went off.

"Sims is tracking their scent and Adam's with him."

"Oh, he's back?"

"For this, yes. I'm kind of pulling everyone in. I've talked with even the FBI about what is going on. I have a team en route to us. So don't worry about that. I'll have plenty of protection. Derek's going to pull the pack back to the house, and I'm going to keep Lydia and the kids with me. The house is protected well. I would be happier if you three had more people around."

"Oh, we do. Celeste has the building crawling with Hunters. I can't walk without tripping over them. We will be safe as houses."

Noah nodded his head and looked out into the main of the ER. There was the faint yell of need for supplies to clean out Boyd's wounds.

"I want to gut them all," Stiles said.

"You always were protective of what you considered yours. I've got Tara calling all of the close packs, and they are pulling everyone in. They understand that they will be collateral damage, especially Satomi's pack. She said that while violence is not her way, she will fight to protect hers. So we don't need to worry about that too much."

Stiles nodded. He felt Boyd waking up; he was reaching out for him. "I need to...come with me." Stiles didn't even wait for an answer. He just slipped out of the room, heading for where Boyd was. He looked like a horrible painting when Stiles stepped into the room. Derek was there with him, lured in by the pull that Boyd was pushing into the bonds.

"Hey," Stiles said as he stepped up to stand at Boyd's head.

"They want you. They don't want to kill you. I heard enough before passing out. They want to take you and use you."

"Of course they do, they are power-hungry, and a magic-user they can bend to their will is just what they think they need. Don't worry. I'm not going to do something stupid. I'll make sure that nothing puts me at risk."

"They have someone in the pack who is giving them information. They know too much."

"Yeah, I've suspected that for a while but not able to figure out who. I have my thoughts, but those are emotional, not fact."

"Why haven't you said anything?" Derek asked.

"Because at this point in time, I have nothing but emotions. They could dodge it, and then it'll look like I'm pissed off and going after them."

"Does Peter know?"

"Yes, and he's doing his job to look into it and get me facts."

Derek nodded his head before he looked at Boyd. He reached out and laid his hand on Boyd's forehead. "I'm glad you are getting better."

"They wanted me as a message. They didn't realize that someone would be around. They were scared off as they heard them running toward them. They weren't ready to have their numbers revealed. One of them tried to kill me then, but then Stiles got too close. I could hear his heart, so I knew that it was him. They saved my life."

"Sleep, Boyd," Stiles said. He laid his hand on his chest. "You'll be under guard. Sleep and heal. You can give us the rest tomorrow."

Stiles pulled Peter with him out of the room, and then the rest followed. There was only a single nurse in there, cleaning the last of Boyd's minor wounds. His body was focused on the major ones. He would be fine, and Stiles knew it.

"We are going to have to set a trap," Stiles said.

"I thought you said you weren't going to risk yourself."

"I'm not. If we set the trap, we can easily figure out how it could go wrong and then spring the trap when it's time. Peter and I are good at that." Stiles didn't get offended when Noah looked at Derek.

"Peter and he had planned many of these for not only us but allies up and down the state. It's going to be easy to do."

"What about the mole?" Noah asked.

"Well, it's going to stay just those I trust," Stiles said. He looked at Derek, who nodded his head. Stiles was pretty sure that Derek would hold up to whatever he said.

"And you'll keep the person you suspect out of it?"

"Ah, no. I'll use them to bait the trap. Let's go and talk to the judge who gave the restraining order and see what we can work out."

* * *

Derek thought that he was sneaky, but he would have to get up a week early to pull anything over on Stiles and Peter. Derek wanted to end this with no fight. He realized that the Herndons were not who or what he thought they were as soon as they were all here. Stiles knew that. Peter had told him as much. So it was down to Derek to make sure that the pack was safe, which was why he was doing something as stupid as what he was doing. It was stupid as fucking hell.

Stiles looked back at Peter, who had circled around where they were, and checked everything out. Peter gave him the signal that they were alone. Stiles had made sure that no one could smell or hear them. It was impossible to make it to where they couldn't be seen, but the undergrowth of the Preserve matched with the darkness of the setting sun; it was not going to be easy to see them with their dark furs. Peter's full shift form was black as fucking hell. He blended into shadows easily.

"You came alone; that's stupid," Bella said.

"No, it's not. I'm trying to save my pack from traitors."

"I was honest with you," a man said.

"No, Roger, you weren't. You never told me your true goal in all of this. Oathbreakers are the worst people in the world."

"I don't consider it oath-breaking if I never meant a thing that I promised you. This stupid town needs a little fear in its life." Roger was grinning as he said it.

Stiles figured that this man was the Herndon Alpha. He was the one who had hurt Boyd as much as he had. That had Stiles' blood boiling. He wanted to rip his throat out and kill him.

"Why?" Derek asked.

"The Nemeton should be used to be better than humans, not live in peace with them. You squander power."

"No other Nemeton is used like that. I refuse to use the gift that magic has given us to become someone who tries to rule more than his right."

"You have a Fox Shifter in your pack, and you don't use him either. Well, you used him to fuck, but that was it. What I would have done with him. He wouldn't have been able to breathe without asking me for permission."

"And that's why no Fox Shifter will ever willingly submit to you. I've learned everything that I could about them. I spent years researching them. They are myths that survived only because of word of mouth. They erased their own history so that no one would ever use them. Think about that, Roger. They gave up all they were so that no one would ever use them again. Stiles deserves a life of happiness doing what he wants and your pack ruined that. He looks at everyone who comes around him that is not pack as people who would take him and use him."

"It's nothing personal, you know. I want power. I want to rule the world, and the only way to get that is the Nemeton and Stiles."

"Well, you won't get the Nemeton from me. Stiles set up spells that transfer ownership to the Gajos pack if I were to fall."

"Ah, well, that does complicate matters a good bit. They are hard to take down, and now that they are aware of what I am doing, that's going to be hard. I guess then that means I'll have to just make you do what I want." Roger took a step forward and ran into something. He growled and looked around before he saw it. "Mountain Ash."

"It's a thing that Stiles does well," Derek said.

"You came alone," Bella said.

"I did, and I didn't. You just can't smell them or hear them. We are pretty good at protecting what is ours."

Roger and the three people with him started to look around, but there was nothing to see. Stiles stepped out first, his purple eyes glowing to give off where he was. Bella and Roger did nothing, but the two men with them reacted by crossing themselves. Peter came out next. His eyes flashed, Derek's eyes flashing in response. Peter stopped on Derek's left side, just behind him, while Stiles walked to stand at his right, in front of him.

"You can't keep your promises either, Hale," Roger said.

"I never intended to keep it. I knew that you would do something. It's not hard to understand that you are someone who I can never trust. I can trust you to be an oath breaker, and it's easy to figure out what to do in that case." Derek waited.

"What's to stop me from killing the three of you right now?" Roger asked.

"You are trapped behind a Mountain Ash barrier, and that means that until the cops get here, you can't escape. You don't have humans in your pack; that means that you can't get out."

"I don't have humans, no, but I do have a few Hunter friends."

Stiles heard the cocking of a rifle, and he lunged, his rump swinging and taking Derek out at the knee. He dropped, and the bullet went through the tree. Stiles kept on running, getting away from where they were. Derek shot in front of him, his clothes tattered and stuck to his wolf body. They didn't stop until they were at the Hale house. The pack was all spread out on the porch like they were waiting for Derek to get back to make sure that he was safe.

Derek shifted back first. "Clothes for these two, please, Malia."

"Of course." Malia jumped up and ran inside at a fast clip. She was back in just under a minute with two sets of Peter's clothes. Stiles wondered if she had done that on purpose for him.

Stiles and Peter shifted back to the skin and got dressed quickly.

"What are they doing here?" Scott asked. He eyed Stiles with a glare. He had community service and a huge fine to pay for breaking the restraining order. The good thing was that the penalties for each breaking of it got worse for the whole pack. The next pack member that broke it would get the next level. It stopped the pack from being able to play a game with the order. Right now, if Stiles came upon them or asked them to come to him, it was allowed. If they approached him or called him and they weren't giving him information, they broke it. It was a legal mess, but some lawyers excelled at pack laws and used the legal system to ensure that everyone was treated fairly.

"They saved me. The Calaveras came with the Herndons."

"Yes," Peter said.

"I thought you were just joking with that," Scott said.

"No. They are allied. The Calaveras have wanted to be in the United States, and they thought with the fall of the Argents that they could make it up this far. The Gajos will make sure that doesn't happen."

"What does it matter who protects the area?"

"Scotty, do you even use your brain to think?" Parrish asked.

"What?" Scott asked.

"Adam Calavera jumped ship and went to the Gajos, the most honest and honestly sometimes too forgiving Hunting family in the world. Don't you think that means something?" Peter's tone was something close to hatred as he asked it.

"Yeah, he was a snotty kid who didn't like being disciplined."

"No. I would love to know who fed you that," Peter said.

Scott said nothing.

"Mexico is behind the rest of the world on how to treat Shifters. They want to control them and use the Hunters to do that. They feel like the only good Shifters are the ones in their control; that's probably how the Herndons got to where they are," Derek said.

Scott looked like he didn't believe that. He looked down at the watch on his hand. "I have to go to work. I'm glad they were able to help you." Scott walked off the side of the porch and headed to his car.

Allison and Chris looked worried about that one. Stiles couldn't blame them. The Argents and the Calaveras had not got along since everything had gone down in the early part of the previous decade when the Calaveras were found to be in league with the Argents. They lied their asses off in court and were able to keep on going like it was business as usual. They had kept to the code that governed the rest of the world and was now starting to act up probably because they thought it was the best time.

"They are going to make a bold move at some point, and we will need to be ready. Is now a good time to head to the station and talk strategy?" Stiles asked.

The drive to the station in Derek's car was silent. The station had a few Deputies there, but they went right for Stiles' father's office.

"The FBI arrived in town this morning. A full team set to take them into custody. They crossed state lines with the intent to harm. They also are not a full Shifter team. They will need help. I thought that we could seed them through Celeste pack to make it look better," Noah said after they had all settled in there.

"That sounds good. The Herndons know all of my pack, but Celeste has a very large pack. The security business that she runs on the side is massive, and some of them like to do hunts for her for fun if they need to unwind from long contracts babysitting people who do nothing." Derek looked tired as he said it.

"Yes, I hear about that as well."

"Adam was supposed to be here," Stiles said.

"He went to get coffee. He was just about to order when you texted you were on your way. So I had him get you guys stuff as well. That might take a little while. He should be here soon, though."

Stiles nodded his head. He didn't like it when Adam was alone. He didn't like anyone being alone. Adam could take care of himself, but he was like a family, which meant that he didn't get left behind.

"He's safe. He's kitted out like he's in the middle of a war. If they get him, they won't hold him for long. He's good at what he does."

"Yes, well, that doesn't mean anything when it comes to people like this. They may hate magic users, but they will use them, and Araya's family is lousy with them. I think they breed for that reason alone. So I don't trust them, especially when it comes to Adam. I think that his mother would likely kill him rather than leave him alone."

Noah nodded his head and looked at the door behind Stiles as Adam walked in.

"I didn't know you worried that much about me," Adam said.

Stiles huffed but took the cup that was handed over to him. He inhaled the scent and found that it was the lavender chai latte from the only place in town he got tea from that wasn't his place. His shop was closed for the moment. Outstanding and newly placed orders could be done, but they were all being courier over to customers as Stiles didn't want anyone caught in the crossfire. "It's too late at night for coffee and tea."

"Like any of us are going to get sleep anyway," Peter said. He took the cup handed to him and moaned a little at the scent. "It's a war council, and that means it's going to take a long time."


	11. Chapter 10

# Chapter 10

### July 2024

Waiting for a fight was the worst thing in the world for Stiles. He had gotten used to it, but it had been so long since it had happened that it was gone. His coping strategies were all for shit. He was worked up, and it was working up everyone else. He wasn't sure what the hell was going on, but the Herndons were taking forever to settle in for the bait. He looked around again, his head barely moving as he sat at the base of the tree. It was massive and was a tree that only lived in the trees because of the way that the Nemeton kept it alive. It looked nothing like the Nemeton, but it was not meant to. Nemetons around the world ran the gamut of types of trees, and this tree was in an area it wasn't native to meant that the Herndons would fall for it. Stiles had traps everywhere so that no one could get the drop on him. He wasn't alone, but the tree above was what was hiding the rest of the Hale Pack. Celeste and her Hunters and pack were all scattered around.

Stiles wondered just what was going to happen when the Herndons came to him.

"They aren't coming; you are wrong," Derek said.

"No, I'm not," Stiles said back. He wanted to shut off the comm, but he had promised his father that he wouldn't, so that Noah could listen in before stepping in with the FBI. They were a distance away in the Hale house, waiting for the word that the pack was all trapped. There were cell jammers in the area because the FBI was raiding their compound in Arizona as soon as they made themselves known. There was enough with what they had done that they had warrants for it all.

There was a large part of Stiles that wanted to prove Derek right about all of this. Derek might question Stiles' brain, but he didn't. He knew that he was right, and Peter was backing him. Hell, most of the pack was backing him at the moment.

In the span of two days, those of the pack who used to listen to Jackson had done some kind of soul searching and figured out how everything really was. It wasn't the best thing in the world to Stiles, but at least he had a few people in his corner again.

Stiles listened for Scott, the only one who Stiles had cast a spell on that would let him know where he was. He had cast it at the same time as the ones that were hiding them from the Herndons. he was none the wiser, though how Scott could trust Stiles was a shock to him.

Scott knew that Stiles would do anything to protect his family, and Stiles assumed that Scott thought that was still him. Stiles knew that he was the one who was feeding the Herndons' information, but he hadn't figured out why yet. Once he had that, he could confront him. It was insane and stupid how much Scott trusted everyone around him.

The sound of people at the edge of his hearing had Stiles picking up his book again. He looked at it, not seeing the words on the page. It was showtime. It was well known to everyone in town that Stiles was easy to sneak up on. He could be startled if he was reading a book. Derek, Peter, and his father knew that Stiles had been building that up since he was a teenager. He heard a lot of conversations that he wouldn't because people didn't realize it. Especially the deputies.

Stiles turned a page in the book and looked down to see a flower pressed there. It was a yellow gladiolus. Stiles swallowed and tried to not read too much into it. It meant to be something to show Stiles support, he knew that, but beyond that, there was the thought that giving someone a Gladiolus flower was giving them a part of their heart. Stiles touched the flower before slipping it a few pages back. He wasn't going to lose it. He would never demean whoever did it that much. They might never step up, but he would make sure that they knew that he loved it. There was no scent, no distinct scent on it. There was a hint of the flower's scent, but the other scents were all around, and Stiles knew that it was someone who was moving around him but not a threat.

Pushing that away, Stiles went back to where he was in the book. He knew that things were not going to be resolved to his liking but knowing that he had someone's support was enough to help him feel better about all of this.

"All alone? See, no one here cares about you," Bella said as she came into the small area, Stiles was sitting in. She looked up at the tree. "Even the Nemeton doesn't want you. But we do. We want you, Stiles, so come with us. We can wipe this pathetic town off of the map, kill your Mated Alpha, and we can all be happy here."

"You really think that I can be gaslit like that? That I would forget what you have done to my pack? You guys need more help than I thought."

Bella rushed at Stiles, and she crashed into the Mountain Ash barrier and got flung backward. An arrow thwacked into the tree at Stiles' head. It was a scare tactic that Stiles knew wasn't going to work on him. He heard the next whistling, and he moved his head enough that it hit the tree again. The archers from the Calaveras hunting family stepped forward. There were three of them. Stiles laughed as he looked at them. He stood up, closing his book and slipping it into his pocket. Bella's eyes followed and saw it disappear.

"A little trick I picked up from Harry Potter. The ideas for some things were really great. Human minds really can do a lot when trying to come up with things for stories."

Bella scoffed at him. Stiles just grinned at her and reached behind to pull out his standard fighting blade. Bella laughed, but Stiles just turned his grin a little feral before he laughed. It was the signal that everyone was waiting for. The Hale pack all dropped from the tree, surrounding the archers and the few other Herndon pack visible. More came out, and then that was when the Gajos pack came from behind Stiles.

The FBI Shifters were scattered throughout them. One of the humans from the Gajos pack broke the Ash line, and Bella lunged forward again, going for Stiles, but there was a second line, and she rebounded off of it.

"You are fucking stupid," Stiles said. He looked at her. "You must be so pretty and such a good lay, and it's why he keeps you around. Though I guess cannon fodder is another use. Stiles flung the blade at Bella, and she wasn't able to move away in time. It embedded itself in her shoulder, and she screamed. Stiles held out his hand, and the blade snapped back to him. "The handle is made from Mountain Ash; it's easy to recall back to me. Leave now and never set foot in my land again, and your pack will live."

Roger laughed and lunged at Stiles, swiping at the barrier. All it did was make a light show and fling his hand back. Stiles waved his hand, and the barrier went down all the way. Roger took advantage of it and lunged again. Stiles dodged him, moving out of the way. He drew the blade of his knife all down Roger's back. He felt it hit a bone on his rib, and Stiles pushed it down harder when that passed.

The scream and then roar of pain had Stiles dancing away, dragging the knife with him, through whatever bit of flesh it had to go before coming out. Adam was right there, arrow nocked and aimed at Roger. The Herndon betas were all stock still, looking at their Alpha.

"Bet you can't take me in a fair fight," Roger said as he stood up. His body was knitting itself back together, the blood dripping less and less down his back to the ground.

"I bet that I could, but the thing is Roger, you wouldn't hold to your bargain anyway. I can't trust you to do that, so why would I even think you are going to do a fair fight. You've allowed Araya to poison you against everything."

"She's the only honest woman in this world."

"Wow, really? The only honest woman? Well, guess what? I know a lot of honest women. Her own son ran away from her. She's poison, and she has poisoned your pack, probably for a very long time, her and her whole clan. So don't even front with me on that." Stiles looked at Araya, who was eyeing Adam.

"What do you know of my son?" Araya asked.

"I know a lot about him. Like how he laughs when he is trying not to. What he looks like when he's drunk off of his ass and just wants to sleep. How he looks first thing in the morning after not getting enough sleep because of research and how he would stab a Werewolf in the hand if they tried to take his coffee. I know how to take care of everyone around him even if they think that they don't deserve it."

"My son is a worthless piece of shit. He went to the enemy."

"Hey, Araya, I'd be careful who you call the enemy. I mean, Celeste is my maternal aunt. Adam is a very dear friend. To me, you are the enemy."

"He consorts with beasts."

"Do you mean he has sex with them? Again I don't see that as anything. I mean, I am a Shifter."

"I hear the rumor of that, yet you touch and use Mountain Ash."

Stiles shifted to his Beta form, a grin creeping over his face. "Boo."

The Gajos and the Hales all moved simultaneously, taking advantage of how they were all distracted. The humans were trapping the Shifters in the Ash barriers, and the enemy humans were all spitting curses.

"You are all under arrest," a man said as he stepped up. He flashed the badge. "A few of you have crossed the border with ill intent. It's not going to go well if you are of the Calaveras Hunting clan. I would give up now as it will look better for you."

Roger rushed at Stiles again, and Stiles easily put him on the ground and held him there by his neck.

"I was taught how to defend myself against everyone. My father is the fucking Sheriff, you asshole. I'm not some weak little pampered thing. You have threatened those that I love. You put a man I respect in the hospital. All for what? A Nemeton that would give up on you as the area would never be calm enough to make it happy. It likes balance, but for balance, there must be a little chaos."

Stiles pushed Roger's face into the dirt before he stood up to let the FBI agent cuff him. Adam was there to clasp him on the shoulder before shoving him toward his father. Stiles laughed as he hugged his father tightly.

The day was not even really started, and it was already a lot of hell. He wanted to go home and sleep, but that would be a while from now. The red tape of having the FBI there was going to take forever.

* * *

Stiles heard the roof door open, and he looked to the side to see who it was. There was a fifty-fifty chance that he had to put out his cigarette.

"You took that up again?" Derek asked as he came around the air conditioning unit into Stiles' line of sight.

"Why not? It's not like they are actually going to hurt me." Stiles flicked the ash of the cigarette into the ashtray. Even though Stiles wasn't sure who actually smoked in the loft, it was there for those who smoked. Peter didn't like its smell, but he could live with Stiles smelling like it as long as he did do it on the balcony. Then the smell wouldn't get inside. Stiles could use magic to clean the smell off of him, but he was an asshole. Peter's nose always did weird things when Stiles smelled of cigarette smoke.

"There is no saving us, is there?" Derek asked.

"No. I don't think so, not that kind of saving. I think we could be friends one day."

"What did your father say?" Derek asked.

It took Stiles a few seconds, but then he remembered it was why he had gone up to the roof of the loft's building in the first place.

"Ah, the FBI is not releasing any of the Calavera Hunters. They had many unregistered weapons in their vehicles; they aren't even registered in Mexico, so they are being charged with many things. Dad's pretty happy about it all, really. He worries about other members coming back to make issues, but it seems that they are all going to jail unless someone flips. The raid on the Herndon compound in Arizona wielded a lot that will put most of the pack's higher-up members into jail for a long time. He also wanted to make sure that I was fine. It's been hours since he's seen me. I guess he expected me to come back after Peter forced me to nap."

"You slept longer than any of us thought that you would. So that was good. Dinner's about half an hour away from being done. That was the reason Peter sent me up. Can I sit?"

"Sure." Stiles looked up at the stars that were above. It was a clear night, so even with the light pollution, there were many stars above. Taking another puff, Stiles saw that the cigarette was almost done. He put it out and lit up another. He could feel Derek's judgment from where he was. It was a habit that Stiles had picked up while in college, and Derek had hated it, but Stiles hadn't minded it. It had taken Derek, Cora, Spencer, and Stiles' father to get him to quit when he had finally graduated college. The urge had never gone away, but Stiles had just pushed himself into doing other things.

"Those don't smell as bad as regular ones, at least."

"Yeah, this is the brand that I make at the shop. They sell a hell of a lot better as the carcinogens are not in there like mass-produced ones. These are a lot closer to the ones that were made in the old days. I enjoy them better than I did the ones I got hooked on in college."

"I didn't know you sold cigarettes at the shop."

"They weren't in the first run of things. I had people asking after I opened up. I sell more than a few packs a day. It's easy to stay where I can sell them. Peter cards everyone, no matter if they are old and grey, and it makes them less likely to be pissed off since he does it to everyone. I know more people who are younger or older, so I only card the ones I am not one hundred percent sure are above the age. I make several kinds, a few have menthol and others have other herbs. I also make herbal versions that don't have tobacco at all." Stiles laughed. "You didn't come up here to talk cigarettes with me."

"No, I didn't. In the coming weeks, I and everyone in the pack are going to be doing some soul searching, and a few are going into therapy. Jackson's going into therapy tomorrow. I never thought that it would come to this. I knew that things were strained between us, but I just assumed it was stress on your end, and I didn't know how to deal with it. I have realized that a lot of the pack hasn't grown up fully. Yes, I know most are under thirty or right at, but it seemed that the way I was coddling them after the shit we faced when you guys were teenagers was bad. They haven't faced up to life yet. Peter's going to help me. I know that we are never going to be what we were but Stiles, I want to keep on being friends. If that is all that I can have of you, I want it."

"And you mean that?" Stiles could tell that Derek wasn't lying, but he could be fully lying to himself.

"I do. I am...Peter calls me broken. That I'm broken inside and that I need to fix myself before I bring anyone into the relationship. I can see it. I know it's going to be a lot of work. Your Aunt and Uncle are having a family come to Beacon Hills for a year at least; I guess it's a couple who are therapists. They can't prescribe medicines like normal human ones, but Celeste said they would talk with you about a few things if needed."

"Yes, there are a lot like that. Normal medications won't work anyway. I have a few things that will, though. I can't...I can't let them treat me like I was. It was such a slow slide that it wasn't until Jackson that I realized how bad I was letting the pack treat me."

"I don't want you out of the pack," Derek said.

"I don't know how to be a part of the pack," Stiles said.

"We can work on that. Lydia wants to move into the place below Peter's loft. I guess he's got the whole place set up as a place for the pack? He was looking ahead to when the pack got too big, and people wanted to live together. The few he does rent for money and repairs on the rest of the place are all short-term and will be up inside a year. He said that until then, pack can just live together. Parrish is moving in with Lydia and the kids here. Jackson's going to move into Parrish's place since it was all bought by Peter and me. The pack is going to be shuffled around, but I guess you and Spencer are not moving out of Peter's place. He said he's keeping his two trouble makers on hand."

"Ashley might have something to say about that. I mean, I think that Ashley is going to talk Spencer into moving in with him when they come back."

Derek whined.

"They are coming back. All of them are. I promise. Ashley won't let it until he's sure that it's safe."

"Ashley has always been good for him."

"So, we need to talk about the elephant in the room."

Derek inhaled sharply at Stiles' words, but he nodded his head.

"Do you believe me?" Stiles asked.

"Yes. I listened to Scott just like you did when it was all going down. He stayed back and wasn't shocked when the Herndons or the Calaveras showed up. He's got something up his sleeve, and I don't know what it is. He's not gonna be that high up in the pack anymore. I'm moving things around. Boyd is staying where he is as he was constantly on me in private about things that I really should have listened to. Peter's staying as my Left Hand. He said he was going to force the pack into submission if it was the last thing that he did."

"Getting a few of them to do it might just take that long," Stiles said.

Derek laughed. It wasn't a happy laugh, but it was one all the same.

"So the pack you trust will be moving in here. The rest is moving around a little. You've never acted as my emissary, we've had Lydia doing that, and she's fine staying, but I can count on you to keep up with the magic?"

"Of course. I would never leave the pack waving in the wind like that. I won't put up with any snide little comments about it all."

"And Scott?"

"I want to see what his game is. He thinks he's so smart that none of us has seen what he's up to. Several of the pack have come to me while we were at the station and told me that they don't trust him."

"I agree with that. We can have a meeting about it. Me, you, Peter, and Boyd whenever we can make it happen and no one thinks anything of it. The pack has a lot of healing to do, a lot of growing up." Derek plucked the cigarette from Stiles' hand and took a puff of it. He handed it back and laughed at the look that was on Stiles' face. "It's not like you have offered me one."

"Dude, you don't smoke."

"I did in New York. Laura made me stop. It's not the habit I think I should pick back up, but I want to get drunk and run into the woods and destroy trees right now. I think you would hate it if I did that."

"Don't hurt my trees," Stiles said. He pulled out a new cigarette and handed it over to Derek along with his lighter. He wasn't going to lit it for him. Derek nodded his thanks and looked out into the city as he lit up. He handed back the lighter and then exhaled deeply. It was like he was trying to get his mind wrapped around things. Stiles let him have the silence.

"How can we go forward?" Derek asked.

"Slowly. We were...good for a long time. I don't know what changed on your end."

"I don't know either. Peter tells me that only therapy will probably figure that out. I did that back in New York; well, Cora made me after I scared Spencer once. I don't know when it started, but I know that it was before Roger came to me. He wasn't the one that soured this; he just helped it along quicker."

"Dude, you could have easily said that he was."

"I won't lie to you. Even if you weren't listening in that close to know if I was lying, I wouldn't do that to you. You are worth more than that. I do love you; I just don't think that I can love you enough. Maybe one day I'll find someone who I can love like that."

"Why can't you love me enough?" Stiles asked.

"I don't know. I'm broken, and you put me back together, but the seams are falling apart again. I thought that you were the answer to my prayers when I was in New York. I thought that just meeting you had made my cracks filled with gold, but it was just flour paste," Derek said. He stood up and moved over to sit on the edge of the building.

Stiles grabbed the ashtray and followed behind him. He sat down beside him, their bodies touching just a little bit. Derek's body relaxed a little at that. Stiles could say that he hated Derek, but he didn't. There were probably a lot of people who thought that he should, and he agreed, but Stiles knew Derek. Stiles knew that Derek didn't ever set out to hurt anyone. Yeah, Stiles would never let himself be that intimate with Derek. He would never let him inside of his heart again, but he wasn't going to cut him out of his life. He had been with Derek for nearly half of his life. He might be a little codependent, but that was his cross to bear.

"Celeste said that someone was coming to work with you."

"Grady, he's a good guy. I met him at Yale. He was one who was sent to check out Freshman to make sure they weren't going down a spiral that they couldn't come back from."

"So, you are getting someone else?"

"I know Grady. I know how he works, and he's also too smart to let me use words to deflect. It's why he's the one on tap for that." Stiles looked at Derek, who was still looking up into the sky.

"Mates are sacred," Derek said.

"Yes," Stiles said.

"I held true to the notion that as long as I loved you and protected you, you would understand that I loved you. That we were Mates, and that meant you understood what I was doing. That I could never actually hurt you. Mates are sacred, which means though I have to do my best to never, ever hurt my Mate. I failed in a lot of ways. I have no clue if we are actually mates, or we were just destined to be pack. That I wanted a Beta to call my own after Laura was killed, and you needed an Alpha that wasn't your father."

"He loves me. I know that Dad loves me but sometimes, his job comes before me in ways that it never should have."

"The job should never come before a kid, even one as special as you. I never got in the middle of you and your father. You two cling to each other like you are the only things left in the world. I can understand that, but I also understand the hurt that you carry from it. You've never talked about your years before the pack, not really. If you ever do, I'll be there."

The door to the roof opened, and the scent of food reached Stiles' nose.

"You didn't tell me he was making spaghetti," Stiles said. He got to his feet, taking a last drag of the cigarette and then putting it out. Derek finished off his as well and stood.

It was Adam, standing at the door.

"Peter needs your help, Derek," Adam said.

Derek nodded and looked at Stiles. Stiles waved him away.

Adam watched Derek the entire time he was walking, even when Derek was gone from Sties' sight.

"Things go okay?" Adam asked.

"Yeah, about as good as they can. We are both still very raw emotionally—we kind of made a pact to try and be friends again, or friends at all. We never really went that route before. Maybe that was the issue. I knew I would be with him, so even though we weren't dating before I turned eighteen, I still saw him that way. Did Peter really want him?"

"Yes and no. He asked for help, and I said I would go and get Derek. It was a little underhanded, but Peter's mouth was getting thinner and thinner. I wasn't sure if it was from you guys or what."

"We weren't fighting or anything. Talking for the first time in a long time really, I think."

"I like Grady; I'm glad he's coming to talk to you."

"I like him too. He's not going to let me get away with shit. I heard Celeste say you were going back to New York?" Stiles asked. He didn't want Adam to go. With Spencer still gone, it was only Adam and Peter.

"Just long enough to pack up stuff to stay here. Allison wants a sect of us to stay behind. So we are going to go and get enough stuff to live here for a while before Celeste and Kaïs head back. It's gonna be better that way. So Beacon Hills isn't unprotected at the moment."

"So, you are coming back?" Stiles asked.

"Of course. I'll be gone for about two days. I'm heading out in the morning, getting to New York, packing everything up, and sending it on the back of a UHaul that Paulie is going to drive and then flying back. Paulie can't fly, and he's the main guy on my little squad. He's been up in New York, recovering from a battle with a Harpy. So he's pretty happy to be back with me."

"How many?"

"Four besides me. Two humans and three Shifters."

"Why didn't they come with you?"

"Paulie. I go on solos all the time, but they don't like it. Kaïs said that they formed the little inner pack as he calls it before I took over for them. Their former leader retired. They are all a few years to a decade older than me, but none of them wanted to be lead. Celeste asked me to do this, so I did. I could never refuse when she asked me to look after her family."

Stiles nodded his head; he understood that. He understood a lot, really.

"So who is on your squad?"

"Well, there is Paulie; he's human. Then three Shifters. A bear, a coyote, and a raven. Peter's offered us the floor above his. I would have preferred under, but Lydia wanted that one, and he dotes on her."

"She's a Banshee, he nearly died during his coma, and it was a light connection with her from where I had brought her to visit him once that allowed him to anchor his soul while they resuscitated him. It was after that he formed a pack bond with me even though we hadn't been able to feel it. His mind healed from the coma and the being trapped in his body."

"I heard Celeste talk about how he went right to you after he was able to fully wake up. He's a strong man."

"Yes, he is. I'm hungry. It's gotta be dinner time." Stiles walked to where the door was, waiting for Adam to join him before he headed down.

The whole world was changed, but it still felt like something was looming on the horizon. Stiles was looking forward to finding out what was coming.

Stiles stopped when he saw his father sitting at the table already. He was glad he was able to at least join them to eat. His jaw dropped when he saw the man sitting beside him, though.

Stiles hadn't paid too close attention to the FBI teams that had arrived in Beacon Hills to deal with everything.

"Holy shit," Stiles said.

Rafe McCall looked up, and he gave Stiles a tight smile.

"I promised him no bloodshed," Peter said as he carried the bowl of bread to the table. Behind him was Derek with two plates of food. One was set down in front of his father while the other was given to Rafe.

"And I promised him I wouldn't pull your pigtails," Rafe said. He moved, and something fell. Noah leaned over to pick up what looked like a cane.

"Are you injured?" Stiles asked.

"I was shot, and it shattered my bone in my thigh. I'm not approved for fieldwork, but I can oversee. I've been at the station. Emotions were high, so I stayed out of sight of you and Scott. No one else even knows what I look like."

"Huh," Stiles said. He walked over to where he was and crouched. "May I touch?"

"Sure," Rafe said.

Stiles could feel the pain, and he could feel the issues.

"Who shot you?"

"A gangbanger in San Francisco, why?"

"He's got a magic bullet. That's why this is taking so long. It's not your age like your doctor has probably told you. Tomorrow morning, first thing, you are coming to my shop, and I'll heal the spell damage, and then you still start to heal like normal. I won't be able to actually knit the bone together fully, but I can make your body heal as it should."

"I'm going to have that doctor looked at. He said there was no spell damage."

"Can you get the slug brought to me here? I can look at it at the Sheriff's station."

"Sure. I'll call my boss and have him escort it down when he comes tomorrow. Chain of custody and the like."

Stiles nodded. Scott was going to be so pissed that his father was in town. And especially that he had been hiding from Scott. Rafe probably hadn't known that Scott and Stiles were on the outs, so he had hidden from him as well. Rafe had changed from the man who had knocked Scott into a table while drunk. Stiles wasn't sure if Rafe could repair his relationship with Scott, but Stiles wouldn't stop him.


	12. Chapter 11

# Chapter 11

### October 2024

The ring of the bell on the door had Stiles looking up. He saw a group of teenagers who were going to be getting tea. He waved his hand toward it and looked back down at the case file that Rafe had given him. It made no sense how much sense it didn't make. He looked at the kids again when they had walked toward him. It was the new main kid with his boyfriend. Stiles hadn't learned their names yet, mainly because they hadn't given it.

"I was wondering if you guys were going to not come today."

"Lunch sucks," the boyfriend said.

"What he said!" one of the other teenagers yelled.

"Well, that sucks," Stiles said with a smile. He rang up the teas, seeing that a few of the kids had more than one in their hand.

"Nine," the boyfriend said.

"Thirsty today?" Stiles asked.

"Dude, you got both of our faves on. So we are fridging the other four and drinking them later. Scooter has to go home and can't hang tonight, so he's going to miss it."

"He could just get one to take home."

"I have the leaves at home to make my own, but it doesn't taste the same without everyone else."

Stiles laughed and waited for the card to be swiped. The door jingled again, and Stiles looked to see that it was Bee coming in. She was covered in mud and blood. Which was odd for the Wereraven. she never got dirty during training days, not like that.

"Adam's going to die," Bee said.

"And that's our cue to leave," Scooter said. He hightailed it out first, followed by the rest of the teenagers, all of them giving Bee a wide berth.

"Shower's free in the back." Stiles eyed the mud that was dry on her. He would have to start up his cleaning spells to pick all of it up.

Bee stomped into the back, spreading more mud than was needed. He knew the moment that Peter saw her as there was a bark of laughter and then a moan of pain. Bee had obviously done something to him. Probably broke his arm. It was her preferred method of pain.

Picking up his phone, Stiles texted Adam and asked where he and the rest of his squad were. It was nearly lunch, and other than when Adam was out of town for small hunting jobs in the area, he never missed lunch with Stiles.

Cara was the next to come into the shop; she looked like she had jumped into a stream before heading in. Her clothes were still wet, but there was a hell of a lot less mud. Stiles was glad he hadn't started up the cleaning charms yet. He would wait until the other three came in. Jake and Paulie were next. Paulie was looking smug while Jake looked pissed off.

"This is all your fault," Jake said.

"What did I do?" Stiles asked.

"I won," Paulie said.

"Oh." Stiles laughed and saw the staff that was in Paulie's hand. Stiles had given him the staff to train with after he had made it up for Spencer to use. He wanted to test it with someone who knew what they were doing as far as using spells that were not their own and fighting. The staff was covered in runes that Paulie could activate.

"Three on two?" Stiles asked.

"Nope, Four on one," Paulie said.

Adam came into the shop next. He looked like shit compared to the others. He had no blood on him, but he was covered in mud and leaves, and what looked like it might be a broken bird nest caked into the mud. Peter's laughter behind him alerted him that Peter had come out of the research room.

"I can't wait to hear about this."

"Fuck you," Adam said.

"Maybe later," Stiles answered. It made Adam smile at least.

Adam trudged in and headed to the back where there was now a huge showering area. The Hale house wasn't available, and sometimes the squad didn't want to go back to the other side of town where the loft was. So Stiles had remodeled the back area, and there was now a five-showerhead locker room of sorts. Stiles liked it as he could wash off in there as well when he needed to after working on spell stuff.

The transition from having a place in the Hale house to set it up in the empty building on the other side of the courtyard behind the shop took Stiles no time at all. Derek had helped get everything set up and paid for it, even though Stiles had told him that he didn't have to.

Derek still had a lot of guilt about everything that had been going on in June and July. They were months out, and still, Derek was guilt-ridden.

"Stiles!" Spencer yelled as he came into the store. He rushed over to hug Stiles.

"You act like it's been months since you've seen me every day," Stiles said.

"I know I just miss you."

"Ashley is going to think that you miss me more than you miss him."

"Nah, he comes to work with me; I can't miss him."

Stiles laughed as Ashley came in the door. He had his laptop slung over his shoulder.

They were still mostly working on pairs. Ashley and Stiles were never alone in the shop. Hell, even if they were together, Peter or Ashley was there. Adam was there a lot as well, but he was actually taking jobs in a three-hour driving distance that Celeste would funnel to him.

"About ready?" Adam asked a few minutes later.

"Oh, yeah. Um, I have the afternoon off, so I'll just drive myself and then head home."

"Oh, how did you snag that?"

"Too many orders in too short of a time. I was a little tired this morning, and Peter spent an hour pouting at me before I agreed. He's going to stay and help Spencer since Liam is off today."

"Hmm," Adam hummed.

Stiles glared at Adam. He didn't trust Liam even though Liam had done nothing to him during the fight. Liam had stayed to help protect those who couldn't be there at the showdown with the Herndons and Calaveras.

The Herndon pack had been pretty much wholly put in prison. The Calaveras were split between serving in the US and serving in Mexico, but the Mexican Government had stepped up when the whole world was looking at them. The only outstanding matter was that the Herndons were actually keeping mum on who the traitor was. Since then, Scott hadn't done a thing to show that he wasn't beholden to the Hales anymore, but there was still something up with him. He had moved back in with his mother, which had put a strain on the budding relationship between her and Stiles' father. Which at one point, Stiles would have been more than happy about that. Now though, she had stepped back, and Stiles had to nurse his father's, broken heart.

"It is the most wonderful time of the year," Peter said as he dropped down into the seat that Stiles had just gotten up from.

"That's Christmas," Adam said.

"You heathen!" Stiles exclaimed. He looked at Adam like he had grown another head.

Adam looked a little worried.

"Halloween is the only holiday," Spencer said as he came out with an apron around his waist.

"Oh God, you are those kinds of people, aren't you?" Adam asked.

"There is only one holiday that matters to them," Ashley piped up from the corner where he was working. His eyes weren't up from his laptop in his lap. "If you are at the Hale house, you should ask to be shown the room with the other holiday decorations and then the one with the Halloween ones."

"Wait, there is a room just for Halloween?" Adam looked a little horrified about that

"Yes. I'll be going over and handing out candy at the loft instead of Dad's this year. Derek's already promised to get everything out and put up the lights and stuff at the loft. The Hale house is always too far back and gets no one. The house is always pretty, though."

Adam raised his eyes at that. "Pretty?" Adam asked.

"I wouldn't," Ashley said.

"What?" Adam asked as his head swung to look at Ashley.

"I wouldn't engage in that. Stiles loves Halloween more than his birthday, and he fucking loves his birthday."

"I think that I do want to hear that."

"Then let's go get lunch and find a place to eat it. I want burgers and fresh air. Peter smells like a whorehouse today." Stiles looked at Peter and glared at him.

"My ears!" Spencer yelled. He covered them up, and Stiles laughed as he passed by him. Stiles kissed his forehead, and Spencer leaned into it.

Adam reached out and ruffled Spencer's hair before he turned to follow Stiles out the door. Stiles stopped and looked toward where the parking lot of the shop was and then sighed. He really didn't want to drive, and there were only a few places within walking distance that he was in the mood for.

"Ninth?" Adam asked.

"Gods, yes." Stiles turned the way toward Ninth Street Diner, which was on 7th street. It had been on 9th but moved when the area had been the victim of a horrible fire. Everyone who owned businesses there moved elsewhere, sometimes building new, and the block on 9th became a huge park. The land was still owned by the owners, and they all shared keeping it clean and for use for walkers and the like who sued it. It had fitness equipment and a small, very small play area for kids as it was mainly for adults to get into shape since it was in the middle of the area's business district. Many went there on breaks or before and/or after work to use it. It was easy to be used year-round since the weather got cool but not cold.

Stiles led the way to where they were going and was happy when the place wasn't that full. Stiles went to lunch late since he usually snacked while doing his thing in his shop. He had also drunk a lot of tea, and that helped keep him full as well. The smell of food, though, had him feeling hungry. Adam laughed when his stomach growled.

"I ate, I promise. Peter feeds me like I'm a Hobbit."

"Good." Adam's tone was one that Stiles had heard more and more, but he hadn't figured out exactly what it meant yet.

They grabbed a table in the corner where Stiles liked to sit. There were no menus dropped by the waitress when she came over with their drinks.

"Regular?"

"Yes, please," Adam said.

"Okay, I'll get the fries out as soon as possible."

Stiles picked up a straw and stripped the wrapper off before he dropped the plastic into his glass. He reached out and did the same to Adam's. He kept the wrappers.

"What's wrong?" Adam asked.

"Huh?" Stiles looked up then when he saw that Adam was looking at his fingers. One of the wrappers was already in pieces. "Someone is starting to court me by the old customs, and I don't know who it is."

"Old customs?" Adam asked.

"Back in the days of Shifters hiding in plain sight among the rest of the humans, there were very detailed customs in courting someone."

"And you studied it in college?'

"Oh, hell no. The customs as they stand now I studied, though Derek had already was starting that. I turned eighteen in high school."

"How did you figure out you are being courted?" Adam asked.

"It started with the flowers. Pressed and dried flowers. I wasn't sure why I was having them given to me. I would find them in books, lying in the shop where I put things. Peter was worried while Spencer kept on calling them romantic. When I was moving books around in Peter's loft, I found a book on older customs in Shifter societies no longer used. I was intrigued, so I read it, and then I found it."

"And you are worried?"

"No. Not worried. I kind of like it. I've learned more about flower language from across the world than I have learned anything else in a long time."

"So, what is wrong?"

"Peter's making me tarnish the idea just from the fact that he doesn't like not knowing things. He doesn't like that someone has access enough to be able to do that without us knowing who it is. I mainly just think that he's worried that someone is trying to insert themselves into this while I'm still vulnerable."

"I thought that Grady wanted you to date again."

"He does. He wants me to go out on a date, but I've just...It's not that I love Derek. It's just that I never dated well in high school. I tried once and then gave up. I'm not sure that anyone would even want to ask me. Derek's been good, but there is that fear. Derek would never get upset at someone rejecting me or going on a date with me and then figuring out that we are not good together. I wouldn't want anyone to date me because they are scared of Derek. So I think it's a moot point on that front. I talked to Grady about that, and he took it to heart. So he's working on something else."

Adam nodded his head. He looked to his left as the waitress brought their appetizer over. It was curly fries with cheese sauce on them. Stiles loved it and indulged himself with them since he didn't have to worry about his father's many issues.

"So, you aren't opposed to dating?"

"No, not at all. I am kind of looking forward to going out with someone, but I don't want someone asking me and being afraid that it would push them into something in the eyes of Derek."

"And you think that's why they are being secretive?"

"I have no clue why they are being secretive. I kind of like it, though."

"Yeah?" Adam asked. He picked up a large fry, dipped it into the extra cheese, and then popped it into his mouth.

"I really do. It's nice. There is no pressure. It's just little flowers that show me what they think of me. It's helping me kind of get over the last bits of Derek."

"I know we've talked about that before, the whole slowly getting over your love of Derek. Or at least the bits of Derek you miss. Not the guy he was at the end."

"Derek was good to me for a long time. We had a good relationship until he started to question things and didn't have the same affection. He fell out of love with me, and yes, things were bad at the end, but I hadn't seen it either. I hold part of the blame as well. I don't want to forget the good. I don't want to demonize Derek. He's not the horrible bad guy in this story. Yeah, I thought he was for a while, but he owned up to his shit; I owned up to mine. It's four months, and we are both just tripping along learning how to be friends. He tried to not touch me last week."

"Spencer told me about that. You literally sat on him for pack movie night. I've noticed that the Hale Pack does touch a lot."

"I think it's from where we were all banded together with the shit that kept on happening when we were in high school. Then we spread out for school."

"That kind of thing bonds people, even if they don't want to acknowledge it."

"You are talking about Jackson."

"Yes. His issues sound like he's got a lot of shit going on, and he doesn't know how to process it."

"Jackson's issues have issues, and for a while, he was hiding them well, but I think that the open marriage and Lydia getting attached to Jordan started to affect him more than he wanted, so he went after me. He's not said he's sorry, but he's stopped talking to me, which is good enough for me." Stiles dug into the food so that it didn't get cold.

Adam didn't push for anything else, which Stiles was happy about.

When the fries were gone, the large pizza was brought out. Stiles grabbed a slice of the pizza and stuffed nearly half into his face. He was hungrier than he thought it seemed. He laughed as Adam's piece flopped on him and nearly lost all of his toppings.

"So, who do you want it to be?" Adam asked.

"What? Who do I want to be what?" Stiles asked after he finally swallowed his bite.

"Your secret admirer, who do you want it to be?"

"Well, I have learned that I don't like women. I think that I kind of liked Lydia's brain more than anything else. So I guess someone smart and a guy. Just someone that treats me with respect and doesn't let others treat me like shit."

"I figure that your wants have changed a lot between what you thought years ago and now?" Adam asked.

"Yes. Back then, even before meeting Derek, he was the kind of guy that I wanted. Now it's someone different. I can't..." Stiles shook his head.

"What?" Adam asked.

"Ever since I got the first flower, I've been dreaming. Dreaming of what it would be like to have someone to hold me at night while I cry, that's not Peter or Spencer. Someone who loves me for me without a single thought to actually change me. Derek didn't, at first, but after talking with Grady and then just thinking about what we talked about, Derek did try and change me. It was subtle, and Grady doesn't think that he even knew that he was doing it. Slowly making it to where the pack felt like they could go against me. The pack is still healing, and we've lost more than a few members over this. Malia was the perfect mole as her combative relationship with Peter makes it seem like she's opposite him on nearly everything."

"Derek's been culling the pack well and making it what everyone thought that it was when everything was starting. The Hale Pack has always been strong. His mother was targeted like she was by the Argents because of that."

Stiles nodded his head. He looked out to the side and stopped chewing with his mouth still full. He watched his father walking down the street with Chris and Peter. Which wasn't exactly a big deal since they had long banned together to deal with the pack and all of its shenanigans. What was stunning was the way that they were standing. His father never liked being touched a lot by people, even pack. Peter usually got away with a hand on Noah's shoulder when he was passing by him. He allowed some members to scent him, but that was about it.

Yet there he was with his arm thrown over Peter's shoulder as Chris' as looped through his other.

"Is my Dad dating?" Stiles asked.

Adam turned to look and then looked at Stiles. "You didn't know that?"

Stiles was up and running out of the restaurant. Peter was the first to see him, and he looked at Stiles and then at Noah before he frowned.

"Dad?" Stiles asked.

"Stiles," Noah said.

Stiles could smell it. The way that he smelled of guilt and shame.

"Stiles, don't assume anything."

"Yeah, Dad. I won't. Don't worry. Have a good day." Stiles turned and left. He heard his father yelling, but he assumed that someone was keeping him from running after him. Adam was standing outside of the restaurant with a pizza box and what looked like two to-go cups and something in a bag. He hitched his head toward where the shop was, and Stiles nodded his head.

The walk toward the shop was quick and silent. Adam shoved Stiles toward his SUV and dropped the food into the car before heading inside. Stiles had no clue what Adam was going in for, but he didn't care. He kept an eye out to make sure that Peter, Chris, and his father weren't coming up.

Stiles sighed and leaned his head into the glass, liking the coolness of it on his face. He heard the door open but just kept staring out. The rumble of the SUV's engine lulled Stiles into a kind of zone out. He settled in and just waited for it to end. He trusted that Adam would be taking him somewhere that he wouldn't need to talk to people if he didn't want to.

"What's wrong?" a voice asked.

Stiles looked up to see that they were at the Hale house. Stiles felt like Adam had betrayed him a little with that.

"You showed me that cabin...can I get the keys? And get your promise that you won't tell anyone, not even his father, where he is?"

"What's going on?"

"I didn't realize that Noah was keeping his relationship secret from Stiles. He saw them out today."

"I see. Stiles has a key. Does he have his Jeep keys on him?"

"I have no clue."

"Hold on." Derek ran inside and came out with the keys to the cabin that was on the opposite side of the Preserve. It had been recently built. "Here. I'll run stuff out to you guys if needed. I'll talk to Peter and see what's going on."

"Stiles made a comment earlier that Peter smelled like a whorehouse. I assumed that it meant he smelled of sex with more than one person and that Stiles knew, and he was poking fun in a way that didn't have him thinking about his father being one of the ones with the sex."

"They stayed over at Noah's last night. He texted me that he was so that I knew that Stiles and Spencer were alone at the loft. The patrols around the area crossed a little more than normal. If you need anything, text me. You have my number. Even Peter won't go against me if I command him to leave Stiles alone. Chris and Noah are not something I can control, though."

Stiles closed his eyes and tried not to think. It wasn't working well at all, but he was learning to do it slowly. He sighed in happiness when Adam got back into the SUV, and they headed toward the cabin. It took an hour to get there with the roads turning to gravel and then just packed dirt the further they got into the one section of the Preserve.

"So before I say anything else here. I am sorry. I thought that you knew about your father and dating Peter and Chris. I have no clue how it started, but it was sometime around he was finally accepting Melissa ending things with him with no word, really. It started out with them going out to the bar and then just staying in at the house. Then they were together all the time."

"I smelled Dad on Peter but didn't think...the sex is recent."

"Yes, I know. Cora bitches about it a lot. The smell, that is. It's something I am glad that I don't have to smell. Let's get inside and get the oven on to warm up the pizza. I got tea to go since pop would go flat. Then I have pie for dessert. Like a whole fucking pie."

Stiles laughed and opened up the door. He headed up, pulling out his keys and opening the cabin. No one had stayed here yet. It was set up for comfort and relaxation.

The cabin was set up with a fireplace, and there was a great deal of wood in a pile beside it, and then Stiles knew that there was a lot on the outside in the woodshed. He had seen the plans for this place. He had been looking forward to the place when it was ready by winter. It seemed that Derek had upped all of the times.

Stiles walked into the kitchen and turned on the oven. He stopped when he saw a folded-up piece of paper on the counter by the water kettle. Stiles unfolded it and started to read.

_I know this place was supposed to be for us, but I have found that the want of it just isn't there anymore. So I thought that maybe this could be your new safe space? The deed for the land and the cabin are all in your name. The taxes and various things have been paid for already for the next few years. The woodshed is all stocked. There are a few freezer meals to be thawed and cooked for whenever you need them. The pack knows to stay away._

_I stood in the living room, and I couldn't see us here anymore. I used to dream of nothing, but us tangled in bed on the second floor and knowing that we had forever. I guess that means that I've really let you go. This is yours given with love from the man who hopes to be your best friend at some point. I promise to never let you down again._

Stiles wiped a tear away as he folded up the letter and then opened up a drawer. It was full of random junk, and that made Stiles laugh. It was the same kind of junk that was in the drawer in the kitchen at the Hale house. He smiled as he touched the weird tea strainer that Derek had bought him years ago. It did shit for actually steeping tea without getting the cup full of leaves. Still, it was precious to him. It was a good memory of the past. Stiles slipped the letter into there before turning on the water in the sink to fill up the kettle. He found a small pitcher, just like back home.

Derek had turned this place into a home away from home for Stiles.

Stiles turned the kettle on when it was full and opened up the cupboard that held the tea. He could smell it. It was all sealed up, but Derek used to say that Stiles could find tea in the middle of a sea, even if it was just a single leaf of it.

There was a lot to choose from, but Stiles went for the one that he liked the best and started to get out enough for a large pitcher of it. He found the steeper that he needed and made sure that it was ready in the glass pitcher. He touched it. Derek had really set the kitchen up for him. There was plenty of his standard stuff for tea. He turned around and looked at what was in the rest of the kitchen. There was a huge island in the dead center, enough room for people to eat at it and to be able to do anything he wanted there.

There were times that Stiles felt like he lived in the kitchen at the Hale house, working on his work there.

"Pizza should be ready in fifteen," Adam said as he leaned up from where he had stuck the pizza in the oven.

Stiles nodded his head even though he was a little freaked out. He hadn't even noticed that Adam had entered the kitchen.

"Making tea?"

"Would I be doing anything else?" Stiles asked.

Adam laughed and walked over to start to look in the cabinets. He found the plates in short order, and then mugs were next. He pulled out a Batman mug and then a Joker one.

"Why so serious?" Adam asked.

"Oh, you asshole." Stiles laughed. It ripped from his throat and came out of him like he had no control of it. He sat down and sighed. The stools around the island were good. He twisted, hearing the slight squeak from the swivel feature. "He built this for me."

"I know. He told me. The bones were there, but he had stalled on the inside, and then finally, he figured out what he wanted it to be."

"The final act of letting me go."

"Yes."

"I think I'll always love him in a way that's not family, that's not friendly, but I'm not in love with him anymore."

"And no one should ever make you think that you can't. First loves, hell, any loves are never gone from you. You could hate his guts but still feel a little love for him. You could want to kill him but also love him. The line between love and hate is so very thin. I know that more than anyone else in the world. I gladly let my family be thrown in jail, but I still don't want to see them dead."

"I mean, your family is fucking crazy. But I get what you are saying to me," Stiles said.

The kettle went off, so Stiles headed over, pulled it off the base, and filled the pitcher. He set a timer and watched as the water darkened as the tea released its flavor into the water. He let it take him away for a few minutes.

"Fire?" Adam asked when the pizza had five minutes left on it, and the timer went off for the tea. Stiles pulled the large steeper out of the water.

"That would be great." Stiles set the steeper in the sink and then grabbed their mugs to fill them up. He set those over before putting the lid on the tea and putting it into the fridge. Hot tea could be made easily, but Stiles liked iced late at night and in the afternoon.

"So, he's been hiding this from me for a while?" Stiles asked.

"Yes," Adam said from the living room.

"Huh. I guess I will have to deal with that at some point but not right now. Right now, I want to eat pizza in front of the fire and drink tea."

Stiles looked at the oven and nodded his head. Yeah, that was a good plan for the time being.


	13. Chapter 12

# Chapter 12

### October 2024

Stiles woke up, and he wasn't sure where the hell he was. He looked around and found that he was lying on the floor in front of a fire.

The cabin.

Stiles groaned as he rolled over. He heard Adam moving around in the kitchen. It smelled like he was cooking something. There was the smell of animal blood in the place, along with cheese and potatoes. The blood was fresh. Stiles tried to push the smell away, but he realized that it wasn't coming from inside.

"Adam?" Stiles called out.

Adam entered the living room. He was dressed as he had been the day before and wearing a hand towel thrown over his shoulder. He looked good. Stiles shook his head to clear that thought away.

"Yes?"

"Did you go hunting?" Stiles asked.

"No," Adam said. He frowned and then walked over to the door. He opened it up and gasped before closing it. "You are not going out there."

"Why?" Stiles got up and headed over, but Adam laid a hand on his chest. "I'm not fragile."

"No, you are not fragile, but you are emotional, and knowing that there is blood out there is different than seeing it. I'm calling Derek. He can come out and get pictures of everything, and then the pack can clean it up."

"Adam."

"Someone is sending a message to you. They knew that you are here, and they don't care about getting caught. I don't want your smell out there messing shit up. Trust me as the Hunter, Stiles."

"Fine. Then feed me."

"I will." Adam pulled Stiles with him into the kitchen. There was a pot of tea already sitting on a warmer with a mug sitting beside it.

Stiles walked over and picked up the pot to pour some tea out. It was his everyday first thing in the morning tea. He wasn't sure that he wanted to eat with whatever the hell was going on outside, but he needed to. He knew that.

It was an hour before stiles heard the crunch of tires and then the sound of feet moving around. Stiles recognized the sound of Derek's heartbeat and then Parrish's as well. He laughed and tried not to think about what Parrish's face was doing at whatever the hell happened outside. A third heartbeat came around the back of the cabin. The door was opened, and it was Jones. Stiles could see that he was pale. That was why he hadn't been able to figure out who he was from his heartbeat.

"Well, someone is pissed at one of you," Jones said.

"Actually, it's just at Stiles."

"Why do you think that?"

"It was a fox. The tail was nailed to the roof of the porch. Normal fox since there are none like Stiles around here."

Stiles knew then what had happened. Someone had killed a fox and spread its blood all around. He itched to run and find his little friends in the Preserve. The keening noise came out, and Stiles gripped his mug to stop himself from taking off running. He wanted to just find them and make sure that they were all fine.

"Hale and Parrish are taking pictures, and the CSU is just behind them. They are going to make sure nothing is missed. I'm in here to take your statements."

Stiles nodded his head and poured more tea into his mug. He knew he should offer the man some tea, but he didn't have it in him. He was too worried.

Adam gave his first, and the only thing that Stiles could add was that whatever had happened, he hadn't heard anything. The nail being pushed into the wood wouldn't make a sound if a Shifter did it. There was no need for a hammer—just the push of metal with a finger. Stiles didn't know what the hell was going on, but he was pretty sure that it wasn't good.

"Have there been any threats?" Jones asked.

"Nothing except for what you guys are already aware of with the Calaveras family and Herndon pack. I can't see them doing this, though. I mean, they do blame me for the most part, but it would be a little more widespread than what we have going on here. Still, make sure the FBI knows what is going on."

"Agent McCall is back in town again. He stopped in this morning. There are talks of budget cuts again, and he wants to make sure that his opinion is weighed in on considering that this area is still having issues with weird supernaturals. We need all of the help we can get considering that most of the attacks don't take place in cities but in open areas like the spaces between cities or in the Preserve."

"Fucking hell, I just got back to normal, as much normal as I can stand that is." Stiles wanted to throw something. The anger in him was quick and seductive. He wanted to hurt, to damage.

"Stiles," Derek said as he entered the kitchen. He walked right over to Stiles and pulled his face up to where Stiles was looking in his face. The pressure from his hands was enough to snap Stiles out of it. "Come back to me."

"I'm here."

"Good. Now you are going back to the house. Adam is going to be on you the entire time. I'm asking him to watch you just like before. Whoever this is, they took down a fox just to get to you. Now they are sending a message, but I don't know what it is yet. I'll be talking to Peter about it when I get back to the station. As soon as Adam called this in, he came to the station with Noah and Chris. I will keep him back from the case since he's your father, but I can't tell him he can't look at it. You are going to cap that anger, and you are going to take it out on Boyd. He's waiting for you at the house. Beat the shit out of him and make it good. Take it all out on him."

"Yes, Alpha," Stiles said.

Derek nodded his head and let Stiles go.

"First, eat. You need to. You are too thin."

Stiles nodded and grabbed the plate that was handed over to him. Adam was eating as well, and it was Jones who had dished up the food.

"It was a hit and run last night," Jones said.

"What?" Stiles asked.

"The fox. It happened in the city, and it was taken in after being found. It was tagged for a study done by the college. It's not one of your friends," Parrish said as he came into the kitchen.

Stiles felt better about that. It wasn't someone who had killed a fox to show him a lesson or something. He wasn't happy it had died, but it wasn't dead because of him.

"Stiles really wanted to just kill the fucker who had done it, though. He hated this. He wasn't going to submit to being under guard for a long time. So far, there was nothing too forward. He was going to get back to his normal life at some point, and he was going to do it if he had to kill every single person who tried to stop him.

* * *

Stiles found his father sitting in the den at the Hale house. He was sitting with a beer in his hand even though the dripping of the condensation said that he had been holding it a while. Stiles dropped down into the chair across from him.

"So talk," Stiles said.

"Stiles."

"No, you talk. You don't get to ask me shit. You don't get to ask me how I feel about this. I will listen to you, but you have ten seconds to start talking."

Noah sighed and set his beer down.

"I heard you and Scott when you guys were growing up. It was after you had gotten over the fact that even though your mom was dead that it meant you wanted me happy and with someone. I heard you boys; Melissa did as well. You guys thought it was awesome that he had a mom, and you had a dad, and then you guys could be brothers. Real brothers, you said."

"We stopped that like...a decade ago. Hell, I have stopped thinking of Scott as my brother a long time ago. He's not even a friend anymore. He's just someone who is on the outskirts of the pack. Nearly Omega instead of Beta. He's got ideas, and he's attached to them."

"Well, I thought that you would be upset that I was moving on instead of waiting for Melissa to take me back."

"Daddio, she dumped you because her son had a tantrum that would have looked better on Lydia's four-year-old daughter when she was told she wasn't getting a new dress since she ripped the old one since she didn't like that it was just a shade too dark of purple. Actually, I think that his tantrum was worse. She's never going to be happy without Scott's full fucking approval of a relationship, and he's never going to do that since you are attached to me, and you would never divorce me to take him on as son."

"Yeah, Scott tried that already. Derek laughed at him. It was about a month after Melissa, and I broke up. Scott told me that if I ditched you, I could date his mother. I told him that I had a son, and it was a son who wouldn't pimp me out to try and steal the last person you have in your life. I know I'm not the last, but the look on his face was priceless."

"When were you going to tell me?" Stiles reached out and snagged the beer, draining it even though it was the shitty kind that tasted like piss and ass at the same time. He hated that beer, and he couldn't understand how Derek could drink it. Hell, he wasn't sure how anyone could drink it.

"This weekend. I fully take all the anger you have at me Stiles, but don't put it on Chris or Peter. They thought that you knew. I've been around Shifters enough to lie when I need to. They are both a little upset with me, but I doubt they will stay mad for long if you can forgive me." Noah held out a hand when Stiles opened his mouth to say something. "That's not a guilt trip. I'm fully confident you will forgive me, it'll take time, but it will happen. I was too scared, and I let it rule me. The look on your face, son."

Stiles got up and walked over to where his father was sitting on the couch. Stiles was in some of Derek's clothes since his had been ripped to shreds while sparring with Boyd. He dropped down beside him and leaned into him.

"I never want you to look at me like that again. I thought that I had seen all of the hate faces you had for me after your teenage years, where I worked more than anything else." Noah wrapped his arm around Stiles' shoulder and pulled him closer. Stiles relaxed into his father's hold, and his father untensed.

"I didn't like feeling it, I can tell you that."

"I just want you to be happy, and I thought that making sure that this was something that was going to last would be best before I burst your bubble that I wasn't even going to try and get Melissa back."

"She's not worthy of you. Peter is marginally worthy, and Chris has to bribe me to allow it."

Noah laughed and turned to kiss the top of Stiles' head. "I'll tell him that. Peter will probably bribe you anyway. They are both very upset on your behalf. I expect Peter to do some groveling."

"Well, a few comments he's made lately make more sense. He was trying to rile me up and get me to verbally fight with him. I'll have to make sure that he pays for what he was doing. Trying to bait me into something where he would drop that he's sexing up my father."

"Who said...nevermind."

"Yeah, Peter smells like a brothel almost every single morning, but the smell of pack is a little strong on him since he's with pack. It didn't register. My smell was the worst thing I had when I was a kid, and even if I smelled you and mom having sex, I didn't know what it was. So yeah, you get to live with this shit. Boyd says he's not cooking dinner since almost no one is going to be around. So call the boyfriends; you are all treating me to the good shit. Steak, lobster, and sushi."

"So, we are going to Beacon City?" Noah asked.

"Yeah. Very much so. I am going to head to the loft to change into clothes that fit me better, and then you guys can pick me up there."

"I can drive you."

"Nope, you get to find your boyfriends and make sure they are on their best behavior. Tonight is the make or break night on whether I actually allow you to date them without killing them."

Noah laughed, and for a few seconds, Stiles could see that he thought that Stiles was joking. His face sobered up, and he nodded his head.

"Good."

* * *

Stiles came into the loft, and he found something sitting on the island. He frowned. It was Peter's writing, and it hadn't been there when he had left the loft three hours before. He picked it up and opened the envelope. There was a key that fell out first and then a short note.

_Stiles, this is for you. I know that you like living with me, but it's also cramping your style a little bit. My loft is always open to you, but you need a place you can call your own. You lived on your own college, but it wasn't really living alone in the dorms. You are thirty years old and need a place to call your own. So please take the loft in the spirit in which it has been given._

Picking up the key, Stiles looked at it. It was just like Peter's key for his loft. There was a throwaway tag on it that stated it was for the penthouse. Stiles looked at the door and looked up at where Spencer was in his room. He nodded his head and went outside. He took the stairs to get up to the penthouse loft. It was the biggest of the lofts in the building, and there was a time when Stiles had assumed when it was empty that Peter would move into it, but Stiles was sure that Peter was happy where he was in his loft.

The loft was locked, which didn't shock Stiles. He unlocked it and pushed the heavy door open. Inside was a little paradise. It looked exactly like what Stiles would want. There were a large open living room area and a desk work area away from the main hub. He looked at the stairs that led up but stopped when he saw that there was a fireplace. He walked over and touched it. It was real, with real wood logs in it, not the one that Peter had installed in his that was gas and fake logs that didn't burn. He smiled at that before heading to the stairs. The upper floor wasn't set up like the rest of the lofts. It was one massive room with what looked like a massive bathroom and a moderately sized closet. The closet had more than enough room for all of Stiles' clothes plus some more if Stiles ever found someone to share his life with. The bathroom had two doors, one from the closest and one that led out into the bedroom.

Stiles was kind of in love with the bathroom. The shower looked like a hedonist's wet dream, and the tub that was set into the floor was big enough for a kid to swim in. He saw that there was the ability to have jets going. It sounded like a haven for days that his body ached even though it was healed after working on items for people with magic. There was a two-person sink set up, and Stiles' stuff was all on one side. The only thing that needed to be done was for Stiles to move all of his clothes up. He wasn't fully ready for that yet. Maybe he could try a few nights here and there and see how it went before just moving out. He was sure that Peter wouldn't mind at all. Stiles didn't want to move out and give Peter false hope only for him to be unable to sleep.

He loved the loft, though. Stiles really did, and he was happy to have a place that was his own. He knew that he had the money, even if Peter didn't actually touch his own money. Peter was still doing well at keeping the pack solvent, with Stiles not contributing as much as he used to. Peter knew that if someone needed something, Peter was more than able to ask him to help. They had good medical coverage for the humans and enough for the Shifters, some things could take surgery to fix for them and some poisonings that needed medical care to fix since it was a certain amount over a time of the cure that was needed and the hospital was the best place for it. Isaac had to be in there a few years ago when he pissed off a witch, and she poisoned him.

Leaving, Stiles headed back down to Peter's place. This way, he would just be in the same building as the rest of the people he wanted to be around. Adam's loft with the rest of his squad was between Stiles and Peter, making Stiles feel better. He did wonder, though, if it was part of why he was on the top. He had to go through most of the pack before getting to Stiles. Stiles got into the stairwell again as he liked walking just the couple of floors that it was.

"Hey, Peter, finally gave you the key?" Paulie asked.

Stiles looked at him. He was standing at the door of the stairwell.

"Yeah. I really like it."

"Good. He's been obsessed about it. He kept on getting everyone's opinions. I was a little worried about why until he told me that you've never lived alone outside of the dorms at college. You went from home with your Dad to the dorms into an apartment that you lived in with a few pack members while still at Yale, Derek was there as much as he could be, and then you were with the pack at the house. Then obviously living with Peter. I can understand wanting the place to be perfect. So it's good you like it. Adam picked out the bed."

"I didn't even lay on it. I'm tired after the shit with Dad yesterday and then the cabin this morning."

"Yeah, Adam's still with the FBI on that one. Spencer's asleep, yes? That's what Scooter said."

"I have no clue. I kind of turned off my hearing to that kind of thing when I went up to the loft."

"Well, if you want company that's awake, hit us up. We will be up until midnight. Come hang if you want." Paulie gave Stiles a smile before he stepped back and let the door shut.

Stiles kept on heading down to Peter's floor. He listened and did find that Spencer was asleep. He was happy that nothing was affecting his sleep. There was a second heartbeat, and that told Stiles that he was safe with Ashley. Ashley had loved New York, and for a little while, it had seemed like he and Spencer weren't going to come home. Derek had gotten very worried about it. There was little else to do but get ready for bed. Stiles settled in on the couch after that with his journal. It was just a place to put down his emotions. He didn't treat it like a diary, but he wrote down important things in it. He had few things to put now that he was back here and settled.

"Knock, knock," Derek said.

"Come on in," Stiles said loud enough for Derek to hear him through the door.

Derek opened it and shut it before heading over to sit down on the other end of the couch. "No trace evidence at all," Derek said.

"I didn't figure. No scent trails, either?"

"No, the only ones that were found were the pack's patrol paths, and none of them went off of that."

"Well, I hope it's not someone in the pack, but we can't rule that out."

"You think it's Scott," Derek said.

"I have no clue who it is. I don't know why they are targeting me. I just want to feel safe, and for a while I was."

"Adam figured out what it means. Peter had a few books on various revenge customs of humans and Shifters across the world."

"What have I done that they want revenge on me?" Stiles asked.

"Not revenge, not wholly. I think that they hate you for something that you did. I don't know what it is. The blood was pretty potent. The animal had been given back to the school, and then it had gone missing after that. They were going to dissect it to see how it was doing internally for something. I kind of tuned that out."

"You never like to see foxes hurt, even if they look nothing like me."

"Yes. We can't rule out that this is something to do with someone thinking that you being a Shifter has hurt them somehow."

"So anyone in the city. We have so many small packs and a few larger family pack units. It could be any of them."

"Yup, and that's what Adam thinks as well. So far, they are warning you off. That's what the message was, to back off. I have no clue what you are supposed to back off of. Noah's not happy with how broad it all is, but he understands that we are probably dealing with someone who thinks they are clever instead of just vague as fuck. So we have pretty much nothing to go on."

"We are just waiting for them to make a move?" Stiles asked.

"Yes. I know you don't like not having alone time, but it's part of why Peter..." Derek trailed off and looked a little horrified.

"Peter left the key to the loft," Stiles said.

"Oh, good. I'm glad. But yes, that's why he set up the loft for you. I found more of your stuff from the house and set it up. Peter tried to buy you the wrong shampoo and stuff, so I made sure he got that right, and I taught Adam to never listen to Peter when it comes to that stuff and you. Adam looked like he was a little afraid."

"He gets afraid of Peter a lot. I don't quite understand it."

Derek snorted like he knew why Adam was afraid of Peter, but Stiles knew that Derek was way more stubborn than Stiles had the patience to deal with.

"Outside of this morning, do you like the cabin?" Derek asked.

"I do. I really do like it. Between you and Peter, I'm now set on places to live. You didn't have to do that, you know."

"I know, but you were always talking about how you loved the idea of the cabin and couldn't wait for weekends away. When I was working on it again as part of my therapy, it just started to take shape as something you would like. When I realized it, I just finished it off. So, it was no big deal. I have a patch of land a mile away from getting set up for a cabin the pack can use. So yeah, it was nothing big."

Stiles nodded his head. He turned to face Derek and leaned his head against the back of the couch. "I love the tea stuff, and you took my weird steeper out there."

"Yeah, I found it in the kitchen in the drawer and thought that it deserved to be where you were. I did that before I knew about the loft, but I figured if you wanted it here, you could move it yourself. Adam said you guys didn't sleep in the bedroom last night. The chest of blankets you've acquired over the years is there. It's at the foot of the bed."

"Yeah, I fell asleep in a pile of blankets in front of the fire. Peter had a fireplace put in upstairs. I'm shocked at that."

"He's not as afraid of fire as he had been, and even I can handle it a lot more than I could before. Cora and Spencer were the least affected by that, but I think they were a little too young. They healed better and easier since kid's minds are better at that the younger they are. Spencer barely remembers it."

"Yeah. He talks about it sometimes, but it's mostly the same stuff you talk about. I know that it's hard for him to not have good memories of your parents. I'm glad that locals all found pictures, and even the newspaper combed their archives for ones. It makes it easier." Stiles stuck his feet out, and Derek grinned before pulling on them until Stiles was lying down. Derek grabbed the blanket and tossed it over him.

"You don't wanna sleep in a bed?" Derek asked.

"Nah, just right here is fine."

"I see," Derek said.

The tone of Derek's voice told Stiles that he knew exactly why Stiles was sleeping where he was. Stiles flipped him off. Derek just tweaked a toe on Stiles' feet before turning on the TV and found a show to watch that would help put Stiles to sleep. It was Law and Order: SVU. He had seen enough of the episodes that Stiles was pretty sure that he would be asleep in no time. He felt Derek put his hand on his leg, and he nearly jerked it back, but all that he did was keep it there. Touch to ground him.

A little while later, there was the sound of someone talking, but it was a safe voice, so Stiles let himself drift off to sleep again. Derek moved and whoever it was, took over sitting with him; his hand was on Stiles' calf, and it felt good, even better than Derek. He hummed in happiness, and then there was nothing but sleep for Stiles.

* * *

Stiles woke up in his bed, wrapped in blankets and the smell of tea in his nose. He inhaled deeply and let himself drift there in bed. He laughed as he finally untangled himself from the covers when the smell of tea and food had him wanting to head downstairs. He found that it was just Peter in the kitchen, and then his father and Chris were in the living room, watching the news. There was no one else in the loft. Ashley and Spencer must have gone out for breakfast and then headed into the shop to open it.

There was a letter sitting on the island in the kitchen with Stiles' name on it. It was in a handwritten script that he hadn't ever seen before. He frowned and looked at Peter, but the man wasn't paying attention to him. It was the kind of ignorance that Stiles knew was on purpose. He was trying not to look at him. Stiles laughed and looked at his father and Chris; they were doing the same thing. His father was never so rigid in how he sat unless he was trying not to do something.

Stiles could smell Derek in the letter, so he was a little worried, but it also explained why everyone was worried.

_Stiles, this is not from me, but I approve of what is happening, and I have met the man who has been slowly courting you. I want you to know that you don't have to worry about him._

That was the only thing inside besides what felt like a letter written on heavy paper. It was the thick kind that spoke of a good bit of money spent on it. He picked it up and opened it. There weren't many words on the page, but there was a pressed gladiolus in there; it was yellow again. Again there was only the scent of the flower and not the person. He was kind of glad about that. He liked not knowing who it was. It also explained a little more why Peter was worried right now. He hadn't trusted the person at all who was slowly courting Stiles. In fact, Stiles was pretty sure that Peter wanted to kill him. Stiles wasn't sure that Peter would ever approve of anyone after Derek had hurt him so much.

_Dearest Stiles,_

_I promise not to call you by your given name unless you ask me to, but I know it. This is my formal declaration that I would like permission to court you. I know that you have figured out what I am doing, and I hope you are okay with not knowing who I am for a little while longer. I am not the kind to get jealous. I was raised in my formative years around a pack that was just as touchy-feely as your pack is with you, now that things have settled down. Please, if you are okay with continuing to be courted, tell you Alpha, and he will tell me._

"So, you have met him?" Stiles asked as Peter finally turned around after Stiles had put the letter back into the envelope with the small missive from Derek.

"Yes," Peter said.

"And you approve?" Stiles asked.

"I am not allowed to tell you that."

"Derek made it an order?"

"Yes." Peter spat the words and looked like he was tense enough to snap if Stiles even pushed him a little.

"Well, I am going to tell him yes, if that changes your answer."

"Thank fuck," Chris said.

"Yes, it does. I do approve. You don't understand how much I have had to keep my mouth shut since a week ago."

"You've known for a week, and you were still telling me not to trust this?" Stiles asked.

"Well, I had to keep it up. I couldn't just stop. That would make you suspicious. A week ago, I was doing the final bits on the loft before the kitchen was being finished, and he hid a few of those flowers he likes to give you around the place. I'm sure you'll find them at some point. I nearly tried to take his head off. He's not worthy of you in my eyes."

"You would say that about anyone. So is he nice?"

"You are not asking about his face?" Chris asked.

Stiles looked to see that the other two had come into the kitchen. He stuck his tongue out at Chris. "I really don't care what he looks like. Derek is very pretty, but it was never the first or even fifth thought. It was how sweet he was. How much he loved to just be around me. I know that I can't compare them, but it's what I want. I want to be around them and love that feeling. I want to sit in front of the fire and just be."

"Yes, he's nice. Upstanding and cares for everyone around him. He has enough sass to deal with you as well." Noah hooked an arm around Stiles' body and pulled him into his.

"Breakfast smells good. I do love your casseroles," Stiles said.

"You love anything that you don't have to try and cook."

"Guilty." Stiles laughed as his father shoved him toward a seat as Peter pulled the casserole out of the oven, then the skillet biscuits were laid on the island by Chris. He thought about how his teenage years would have gone if Chris and Peter would have been around. He would have loved to have three fathers. He was probably one of the only kids that would have loved it. Chris and Noah worked too much, though Chris' work was slightly different from his father's but still. Peter would have been the stay-at-home Dad, making sure that Stiles had the attention he needed. He was going to enjoy having them both around dating his father.


	14. Chapter 13

# Chapter 13

### October 2024

The smell of burgers had Stiles' stomach growling. He was fucking hungry and had closed the shop so that Ashley could take Spencer out to dinner and a movie in Beacon City. He hadn't been expecting for his actual dinner to be gone from the fridge. Someone had eaten it, and he was going to make them pay. Stiles didn't go up to his floor but got off on Adam's and walked toward where the door was already open. He would be shocked, but it seemed that everyone who lived there liked to have the door open. It was rarely shut.

"STILES?" Bee called out. She waved him in with a plate of food in her hand. There was a hockey game on the TV, and the squad, minus Cara, was sitting around it with food.

"Oh, good. I don't have to take this up to you," Cara said as she appeared in his line of sight and handed over a plate that was piled high with bacon cheese fries, and a burger.

"What's this?"

"Peter called and said that Spencer admitted that he had eaten your dinner for lunch but only like an hour ago, so we grabbed more food, and I was going to take this up to you in about five minutes, but since you wandered this way, it saves me a trip. Go sit and watch."

Stiles looked at the other four and saw space open on the couch between Bee and Scooter. Paulie was sitting in the chair, and Adam was on the love seat alone. Stiles walked over to sit with him.

"Who is playing?"

"Kraken versus Blue Jackets," Adam said.

"Ah. I've not seen too many Kraken games since their first year. Just kind of keeping to my teams."

"Yes, Adam's told us you like the Golden Knights."

"Vegas is my favorite place to visit. My father hates it as he thinks I'm going to get robbed and beat up while there. Or gamble more money than I have, which would be a feat given how much money I have. I don't like to gamble, but I do like to just see the people."

"Adam loves Vegas too. He loves it when we have a job there," Bee said.

"Yeah? Maybe next time you are sent there for a job or a case or whatever takes you there, I can go too. I'll play tourist while you poor sobs have to work. Getting to go to a home game for the Knights again will be awesome. Any time they play the Kings, I try and make it."

"You actually like hockey?" Paulie asked.

"Yeah. My Mom was a big baseball fan, and I kind of lost a lot of passion for it, but I got into hockey. It was kind of nice to watch it. Dad used to turn the TV on in my bedroom and let me listen to games when I was young. Before I turned into a teenager, that is. I'd fall asleep listening to games. So there are some good memories there in a time where I didn't have a lot."

No one said anything, but Adam bumped his shoulder into Stiles' and then pointed at his food. Stiles set the plate on his lap and picked up the burger. The bun was warm and toasted. There wasn't a single thing wrong with the burger, and Stile was enjoying it. The fries were still like volcanic hot, so he saved them for after he devoured the burger. A few beers were unopened on the coffee table, and there was the kind that he liked there, so he waved at it. Adam nodded his head. He snagged one and opened it up to take a swig before setting it down again.

The game got good, and Stiles was happy about it. The feeling of friends around him and just not having to be anyone other than himself. He talked when he had no food in his mouth, and he cheered with a beer in hand when the Blue Jackets scored.

"You like them over the Kraken?" Adam asked.

"I had to pick one east team to like, and it was them. I developed a little crush on Elvis. I got to go to a Vegas game in January of 2019, and Elvis got his first shutout against the Knights. I should have hated them, but Elvis was just so fucking happy. I watch CBJ games when I can. They play well and have been building so well for the last decade. They are a good team."

"I didn't even know you liked hockey," Adam said.

"It's not something I talk to Celeste about all that much. Hockey was more something I did with the pack. We watched games and shit. I just...I've not watched a game since the end of last season. I know we are only like a week or two into the season for the various teams, but still. This was good; this today, that is."

Stiles knew that it was one of the things he would have to get used to, being apart from the pack on things like this. He couldn't act the same with them. He had tried, and it just wasn't the same. It would never feel the same. Adam wrapped his arm around him and pulled Stiles back to lean against the back of the couch. He picked up Stiles' plate and combined their fries to let Stiles pick at them. Stiles watched the game and let himself be happy with what he had with everyone in the building. They were his new little weirdly close pack. He hoped that one day he could be closer to the rest of the pack again but right now, he was still in pain.

"It's fine to miss them," Bee said.

"I know." Stiles looked at the TV to see that it was a break. He stretched and found that the fries were all gone. He frowned a little. He didn't remember eating, but he assumed he had as Adam hadn't eaten that many.

"More beer?" Cara asked.

"Sure." Stiles got up to get more for himself. He knew that it was Cara's turn to cook. They all took turns during the week, and on the weekends, they ordered out. It seemed to work for them. If they hunted during the week, sometimes whoever's night it was could order in. They were adults and knew that shit happened. No one got bent out of shape if one of them didn't cook one night. Because the next time, it could be their night.

"So, I heard today that you have someone courting you?" Paulie asked.

"Paul," Adam said.

"No, it's fine. It's not a secret. Or at least I don't think it's supposed to be a secret. Yeah, I guess he's been slowly doing it for months. I didn't know it for a while." Stiles smiled as he thought about it. He was sure that his face looked sappy at the moment. No one made a comment about it.

"And your Alpha approves?" Paulie asked.

"Yeah. He's met him, I guess and gives his approval. Peter gave his, which weighs more on my mind than anything else."

"Well, to be fair, I'm more scared of Peter than of Derek," Scooter said.

"And that means you are smart." Stiles laughed and settled down on the couch again. He popped open the beer and took a sip before leaning back into Adam. "Games about to start again. Get your asses back in here. Ass on the couch before the puck drops!"

"Yes, Sir!" Cara yelled.

Everyone scrambled to get in there to get settled down again. Stiles was enjoying this. He laughed as everyone started to get into yelling at the TV. Adam wrapped an arm around Stiles halfway through the period. Stiles relaxed into him more, and he was getting tired. Between the workday and the beer, that didn't do much than just relax him.

Even with the yelling, Stiles started to fall asleep at the halfway point of the last period. He didn't even try and fight it. He just closed his eyes and enjoyed being in Adam's arms.

* * *

"It's the Ides of October," Peter said as he came into the shop.

Stiles looked up at him and glared. He was sketching out a tattoo that he wanted to get for himself. Thankfully, there was a good tattoo artist in town that Stiles trusted to not use a blowtorch on him to get it. Stiles just had to supply the ink, which was expensive as hell for most people, but since Stiles didn't need to pay someone to make it magical enough to mark him but not kill him with the wolfsbane in it, it was fine.

"What's that?" Peter asked. He reached out for the paper, but Stiles just bopped the pencil he was using off the back of Peter's hand.

"Something I am working on."

"I see. Well, it's interesting."

Stiles flipped Peter off. The man just laughed as he walked into the back.

Liam was the person in the door, and he was smiling as he tried to usher Stiles away from the register so that he could run it.

"Ugh, fine," Stiles said. He grabbed the notepad and headed over to his chair. His Kindle was already over there and a teapot that he just needed to warm back up. He traced the rune on the pot, and it started to warm back up. He settled in and kept on working on the drawing, adding in things that he liked and erasing the things that he didn't like. He had designed a few tattoos for people over the years but never any for him. He hadn't been able to think of anything else since the night before. Adam had spilled beer on himself at the end of the game and had ripped the shirt off before the beer smell got too much on his skin. Stiles had seen the large serch bythol on his back. It wasn't actually the symbol since there was a circle in the middle that wasn't on the normal, but it was easier to think of it instead of calling it the Gajos family symbol. It was just as much a symbol of them as the Triskele was of the Hale Pack.

Derek's tattoo of the symbol on his back was plain black while Adam's had been in full color, much like the actual symbol was. The colors each meant something, but it was just standard stuff for each color. Stiles loved tracing the symbol. He had a few versions of it on various things that had come from the family. He had found himself tracing the symbol on the books when he was reading them. He tugged the pot close and filled his mug before taking a quick drink. He couldn't remember what tea he had thrown into the pot in the little sachet. Now he knew. It was black, which was good; he needed the pick me up that the tea gave him. There was a hint of sweetness and spice. He had made one of the Chai blends that he had. He nodded his head before looking down again. He smiled as he realized that he had been drawing without seeing. He tended to do it when he was working on magic. Instead of the normal circle in the dead center, it was the Triskele.

Stiles dug around in his art bag at his feet and pulled out the pens he had in there to color things. He painstakingly traced over every line, adding the color to make it the symbol that it was supposed to be. Then he used the yellow for the circle to outline the Triskele. He loved it so very much. Now he just had to take the time to get it put on him. There was also the part of figuring out where he wanted it. He looked down at his clothes and then at where his chest was over his heart. That would be the best place. Unlike Derek and Adam, he wanted it where he could see it. A reminder that the two packs were a part of him. He would never be away from them, even if he ended up being more part of the Gajos pack than the Hale one. The Hale Pack was his first pack. Even if he was technically born into the Gajos pack, they hadn't been around much at all until Stiles was nearly an adult. His family had stayed away since it was what Stiles' mother had wanted.

"Stiles?" Liam called out.

Stiles looked up and smiled at Satomi Ito.

"Alpha Ito, welcome to my shop," Stiles said. He laid the drawing aside and stood up, snagging his cup at the same time. He walked over to shake her hand.

"You look much better," Satomi said.

"I feel much better. Thank you for the support you have given us during this horrible time."

"It was no problem. Your pack is worth a little trouble. I benefit from the Hales being around more than they benefit from me. You have my order ready?"

"Yes, Ma'am," Stiles said. He took a drink of his tea and then headed into the back to find the crate that was full of the tea and other various things that Satomi ordered monthly. All of the Alphas in a one-hundred-mile radius would be in the shop today. It was like the Ides of every month. They didn't like to head into territory that was perceived as another Alpha's, and it was just crazy to have them come to his shop and have to ask for permission. He had set it up to where on the Ides of the month he had an open shop day, and they could come in without asking Derek. Things had changed over the last few months, but all of the Alphas were still keeping to that.

Stiles wasn't Derek's anymore, not at the base of it, so that meant that he had no say on who came in and out of Stiles' shop anymore, but since Stiles was still Derek's pack member, they were keeping to it out of respect. Stiles liked it as it meant that he could do a lot of stuff in bulk. Most of it was teas and herbal items. Teas to help calm down kids so that they didn't shift during their bodies changing, especially during teenage years when control was the worst. Other things were for the humans of the pack, herbal remedies for things like cramps and bloating. It was easy to make it all up, and Stiles had all of the items on hand. Liam had taken over the ordering of supplies and other things like that, so Stiles had more time to do what he wanted to do, magic and potion-making. Peter handled the bills and the various things, and then Spencer lived on the register. They were in a good pattern with what they had.

"I have a new tea in there. A strand of yellow that I modified to where it should heal all wolfsbane poisoning with a cup. There is enough for seven cups in there along with the directions. I've tried it on my pack, some due to pissing off the wrong people." Stiles looked at Liam, who just shrugged. "Others were self-administered, and they all healed up, but my pack doesn't have the variety that others do. The supplies are hard to come by, but the sachets once made are good forever. We can see how easy they are to keep up. They are a gift from me as long as you tell me the time it takes from ingestion until the wolfsbane positioning is all gone."

"Of course. Thank you."

Stiles nodded his head. He looked at Liam, who set the box over for Satomi to pick up after she had paid. Others paid online in the morning, and the bill just had to be checked, but Satomi sometimes wanted to add things that were in stock, so she just paid when she was here.

"So why did Spencer want to swap with me?" Liam asked when Satomi was gone.

"He ate my food," Stiles said.

"He's lucky you like him. I would be gutted for that," Liam said.

Stiles laughed but didn't disagree. He looked at where Peter was doing something on his phone. He had been silent for too long.

"What's up?" Stiles asked.

"I guess your man is getting you lunch," Peter said.

"And is he coming with lunch?"

"No. He's sending your Alpha to deliver it."

Stiles raised his eyebrows at that. It wasn't that Derek was even willing to do that, but it was the act of Derek delivering it. That meant that it was super serious. Which Stiles knew before this. No one spent that long courting someone without making it overt unless they were serious, but the Alpha giving his blessing like that was like a huge thing in the older courting customs.

Derek came into the shop just a few minutes later with Noah on his heels and the smell of sushi filling the place. Stiles narrowed his eyes and looked at Peter.

"Did you help him pick my food?"

"No. And neither did Derek."

"He didn't ask anyone?"

"Not that I know of," Peter said.

Stiles wasn't sure about that, but what was ordered for him would say what he thought of the person. "Order something for yourself. I will not eat alone."

"Oh, sorry, I guess I should have said that." Peter actually looked a little chagrined at that. "He got it for all of us, even your father."

Stiles raised his eyebrows at that. That was entirely too many Shifters. Now he understood why Derek was the one to deliver it. It looked like he and Noah were still working. They were probably taking their lunch break. Things had been tense between them, well, really Derek and the whole of the station, but as Derek adjusted to letting go of Stiles and actually did what Stiles wanted, they all calmed down. Derek had faced a pay cut after the whole debacle with the pack acting like they were, but everyone knew that Derek had talked to Noah about it all and made him understand. The pay cut was something that everyone saw as censure but knew that it didn't really do much except save face. Stiles had been okay with it. He hadn't wanted to keep on doing stuff to Derek. Healing and moving forward was needed more than petty shit. Though, Stiles had been petty as hell over a few things. Derek had expected that, though, since he knew Stiles.

"Well, let's eat." Stiles took the bag that Derek handed him and saw that each bag was labeled for who it was for. Liam smiled when he opened his, and it was Pad Thai inside with a single California roll. Which was about as adventurous as Liam ever got.

"So he's serious about all of this, huh?" Stiles asked as he broke his chopsticks apart as he looked at his first roll. It seemed that the boxes were numbered, so he would be a good boy and eat them in order. He really wanted to know what dessert was. He could smell the sweetness, but it was pared down by the rest of the food.

"Yes," Derek and Noah said.

Stiles laughed at the look that his father gave. Stiles was sure that while his father approved of courting Stiles, he would be happier if Stiles wasn't dating ever again. Stiles wasn't really built to be alone, though. He craved someone around him in a way that wasn't fully sexual, but he wanted someone to comfort him, and while he knew that his friends would, he would be happier with someone else doing it.

"So?" Peter asked when Stiles opened up his second roll.

Stiles glared at Peter and flipped him off. Stiles took his food and walked over to his chair to settle down. He settled in to eat and try and ignore everyone watching him. The only way it could be worse was if Spencer was there. He had less tact than the rest of them, though, given his ADHD, Stiles understood.

"I hate you all," Stiles said when he opened up the dessert.

Derek laughed and worked on his own food. It was good to see him laughing again. Derek had settled down into being friends with Stiles with ease. It was almost too easy, but Stiles knew how he felt; it was written on his face. This was probably what they were supposed to be and let a bond they had never felt before turned them to more.

Stiles had wondered about how things would have gone for them all if they hadn't thought they were mates. It wasn't worth the thought, though; nothing would change.

"Dinner tonight at the house?" Derek asked.

Stiles nodded. He hadn't been there for dinner in a while, and he knew that he needed to. He needed to be around the pack more to get things settled. He just hated how it felt. There were those that were still pissed at him. They had hurt feelings about how they had treated him, and unlike the rest, they were taking that out on Stiles, blaming him. Derek wasn't pleased with it, and he was trying his hardest.

"Adam and his squad will be there," Derek said.

"Oh, fun. Is there enough room?"

"Boyd is setting up the outside tables with the portable propane heaters. Everyone is coming," Derek said.

"Good, Melissa made the comment that she missed pack stuff the last time I was taking a suspect into the ER to be checked out before taking them to holding."

"I'll get the kids onto making fun of the love birds," Stiles said with a grin in his father's direction.

"Please, don't," Peter said.

"Dude, that bridge has sailed so far it can't see where it started. You guys are just going to have to live with it."

"You are dead to me," Peter said.

Stiles laughed and shoved a bite of his dessert in his mouth. It was mochi bites, and he loved it.

* * *

Boyd was the only one outside when Stiles got there. He closed the shop early since all of the orders were picked up. Anyone else could come back again later. Liam was coming in a little while, going to spend a little time with Brett from the Ito pack before heading to the meal. Food wasn't going to be served for another two hours, but Stiles wanted to just be around the pack a little. See what he could feel about it all.

Isaac and Erica were in the kitchen, checking over the food that was being cooked. Erica looked at Stiles and then away without saying anything.

"Hey," Stiles said.

Isaac looked up and smiled at him.

"Hey, hungry for an appetizer? Derek's in the dining room with them."

"Nah, still pretty full from lunch. Don't wanna spoil dinner. Especially Boyd's cooking. I will go and entertain Derek while he protects the food."

Isaac laughed, but Erica said nothing.

Stiles wasn't going to force her to talk to him. He wasn't going to take her shit, though, either. He had been talking back more and more to the pack that still thought him in the wrong. He hadn't before out of some kind of respect for Derek since he should be the one defending him, and Stiles had grown out of that.

Derek was working on a case file when Stiles entered the dining room. He looked at Derek with a smile and then pulled the file away when he got close enough.

"Stiles," Derek growled.

"Nope, no worky!" Stiles closed the file and slipped it into Derek's backpack, and then he closed it, magicking the thing closed so that it wouldn't open until tomorrow morning. He had done things like that before. "All work and no play makes Derek a very bad Alpha. I know for a fact there are no active cases that need that kind of work, so it's a cold case. One night is not going to matter. You need a night off, Alpha."

Derek glared at Stiles and tried to pen his backpack but stopped when the things wouldn't budge. He sighed and leaned back. "I'll just take this to my bedroom then."

"Good and come back changed, no duty clothes!" Stiles yelled after him.

"See, if you just came back, everything would be fine," Scott said.

Stiles looked at Scott and tried to understand what the hell was going on in Scott's head.

"Everything would not be fine at all. Neither of us was happy; you want us to go back to that, for what? We are both happier right now."

"Yeah, being a bed buddy to some fucking stranger. Yeah, I've heard about your being courted. He's not even showing his face around here. He's trouble. I know it."

"You don't even know who it is. I don't. Derek, my father, and Peter approve; that's all that I need."

"You don't know what you need. You need to be taken in hand and made to behave."

"SCOTT!" Melissa yelled.

Stiles looked to the side at her. Melissa was looking at Scott like she didn't even know him.

"Mom, you don't understand. you are human."

"Yeah, I'm human, but I've learned a lot about Shifters, and even I know that what you just said stinks of a mind who thinks that women are beneath him if we were discussing men and women. You go sit down in the living room, and you shut the fuck up."

Stiles wasn't going to do a damned thing to make Melissa mad after that. She didn't cuss like that, and when she did, shit was getting real.

"You can't make me."

"But I can," Derek said. He growled and flashed his eyes as he stepped back into the room. "Go sit and shut up; you are only to be speaking if someone asks you a question."

Scott opened his mouth but shut it again when Derek growled. Scott stormed off. He probably wasn't going to the living room, and the slamming of the back door told Stiles he went outside. Stiles decided to stay inside until more people were around to be a buffer.

"I'm sorry. I don't...I think that maybe it's time to get Rafe into this fully," Melissa said.

"It can't hurt at this point," Stiles said.

"Where has he been working?"

"They took over the office space that's in the building next to the station. So you can find him there starting at nine tomorrow morning. Before that, the diner down the block from about seven on."

"Thanks." Melissa stepped up to give Stiles a hug. He hesitated for just a second but allowed it. When Melissa turned around, she saw Noah standing there with Peter and Chris. They were all talking, and it was evident that the way they were standing in the kitchen was something going on there.

"I missed my chance there, didn't I?" Melissa asked.

"Yeah, I think so. It would have been awesome, though. You are still my Mom in all the ways that count, though."

Melissa nodded her head and headed toward where Noah was. Stiles slipped out the door that led into the living room. He really didn't want to stand witness to Melissa, giving the blessing that none of the three really wanted but would make her feel better. Stiles just hoped that Peter wasn't that big of an asshole.

Stiles kept on going until he was outside. The front porch had Isaac and Allison on it; they were talking. Allison held out her hand, and when Stiles got close, she tugged him down.

"Isaac told me what went on in there. I'm sorry he's an asshole."

"It is what it is," Stiles said.

"Yeah, but it hurts. I know you are still sad about it. It was like the world blew up, and you lost your friend and your lover in one go. But let's talk about better things like this guy who is courting you."

"I know little. He's outed himself to Derek, Dad, and Peter, but he's still in the phase where he shows me what he knows about me. So far he's doing good. He got my entire sushi meal right without asking anyone, at least as far as Peter knows. No one else is afraid of him hurting me or being around me, so I guess it's good."

"I looked up the stuff after Peter pointed out the book in the library," Isaac said. He laughed when Allison hit him on the shoulder. "It's a lot of fun. I know that the timeline is built because you guys could be cities apart or even states when it was made. The new era of technology does allow for updated time frames, but I like that he's so careful with you, after everything."

"I think it's why he chose not to up the timeline of things. Since I'm still just months away from over a decade of relationship. I want that kind of companionship. I'm assuming Peter was talking about the letters he's been writing me the last two weeks?"

"Yes," Allison said.

"You would think that Peter's the one being courted with how he is talking." Isaac was gagging a little in mockery.

"No, he's just having too much fun with two other men," Allison said.

Stiles laughed. He heard a few more people arriving through the trees. The lot where many of them parked was not far from the house, but it allowed people to leave quickly. He hadn't been paying attention to who was there.

"Thirsty?" Adam asked from behind.

"Yes, please," Stiles said.

"Isaac, Allison?"

"Sure, beer," they both said at the same time.

Stiles laughed at the twin answers and leaned into Allison.

"Where is Kira?" Stiles asked. Usually, she was right there the entire time, never far from Allison.

"On a date with Malia."

"Really?" Stiles asked.

"Yes, Kira asked her last weekend, and they had plans for tonight. Derek told them to have fun, and they didn't need to break them to come to the pack dinner."

"Awesome. I'm glad that Kira is moving on again."

Allison nodded her head.

They were silent until Stiles heard Adam coming back to them.

A tumbler was pushed in front of Stiles' face, and Stiles took it before taking a sip. He enjoyed the whiskey's flavor in the drink and the subtle hints of a few other things. He nearly choked, though, when he realized that it was.

Stiles looked at Adam, who was handing Allison and Isaac a beer each. Stiles stood up and shook the drink.

"Did I make it wrong?"

"Nope, not at all. The thing is that no one but Peter and me has ever made it right. I know he's talking with Chris in the backyard; his voice is carrying on the wind. You went in and made it all on your own. Not even Derek can make this right, even though he's tried. And I've only told one other person. One, Adam."

"Shit." Adam looked like he might run away.

Stiles stared at him. He stared at the man who had been not only courting him slowly, but it seemed stealthily dating him.


	15. Chapter 14

# Chapter 14

### October 2024

Stiles sat down at the diner that he knew that Adam went to every single morning for breakfast. He had a cup of tea, well he got the water from them and brought his own tea. This place stocked just standard Twinings, which wasn't the worst tea in the world to have for a hot tea choice, but Stiles was a snob.

Adam had run after that, leaving his squad behind to have Stiles try and get them to get him to come back. He wasn't answering his phone and, according to Parrish, was not at the loft. Stiles had gone home and waited up for Adam to come back, but he hadn't.

So Stiles was making Adam meet with him. There was no mission on the docket; Stiles had already texted his Aunt to ask her. She had laughed so hard that she had dropped her phone and broke it, according to Kaïs, when he texted Stiles while Celeste made her way to where he was in the house in New York.

"Shit," Adam said as he came in the door.

"If you walk out that door, go back to New York and never talk to me again," Stiles said when Adam made like he was going to backtrack.

Adam stopped, took a deep breath, and came inside. The other people in the diner were laughing a little bit. Stiles just kept his eyes on Adam. he walked over and sat down across from Stiles. The waiter brought him over his standard coffee.

"I'm shocked you made a mistake like that," Stiles said.

"Cara was talking about how much you smelled of sadness and then how much Scott was pissed off. I wanted to comfort you, and it didn't click at first what I was doing."

"I see. It's still weird. You aren't mistake prone like some."

"No, I'm not, but it is what it is. I was going to start laying down hints over the next two weeks and assumed that you would know by the end of that. Given how smart you are. I'll adjust my plans. Though I do want to keep to the schedule of things."

"Of course, though now the stealth dating is going to have to be not stealth. I do like that you were playing both ends to the middle. It's cunning and something that I would have done."

"Yes, Peter approved of it wholeheartedly. Derek wasn't upset last night, was he?"

"Only in that, you didn't stick around. He was all for bringing you back to beg forgiveness, but I pushed him off of that. Spencer and Liam cuddled with me and glared at Scott."

Yes, I heard how much of an asshole he was. Have you figured out what is going on there?"

"No. He's being watched pretty well, and he's not meeting with anyone. So it has to be over the phone if he is talking to someone. Derek's not at the point where he wants to try and get a phone tap authorized. Rafe's all for it."

"I'm shocked."

"Rafe doesn't know who his son is, and yes, most of that is Rafe's issues, but that's not the son that Melissa raised. She's going to talk with him today, actually. So it should be interesting to see what Rafe wants to do."

"You used to hate him," Adam said.

"Yeah, back when I was Scott's friend. Scott hated his father, and I couldn't not hate him as well. He helped Dad out when the budget shit hit the fan years ago, and now he's just...a guy. He's not Scott's father; he's just an FBI agent who works in the area right now."

"And me?" Adam asked.

"You are a friend—a good friend with the chance to be more. I don't...I like what we are building, and I want to keep on, so friendship and romance at the same time. Which I would have told you last night if you had stayed around. The bonfire was fun. I could have used a cuddle partner that wasn't Spencer."

Adam nodded his head and smiled; he still looked a little unsure. He opened his mouth, closed it, and sighed.

"Also. I am not doing this because I want to stay friends and think this is the only way. I know that you would leave for a little while, lick your wounds, and come back. That's the kind of man you are. I'm not a child that plays with feelings. I know there is a decade between us in age, but that's okay. We are both more than old enough to know our minds and to know what is going on."

Adam deflated like he was relieved, and Stiles smiled.

"Ready to order?" the waiter asked.

"Sure." Adam looked at Stiles, who just raised his eyebrows. Adam laughed and then ordered for the both of them. "You are a little shit."

"Duh," Stiles said.

"You and I are going on a date in three weeks, a true and honest date. No holds barred. Peter's already worked out the schedule to where you can get off early the day of and have the next off. We are going to have fun, and nothing is going to stop that."

"Sounds great, but you and I are meeting for breakfast or lunch at least a few times between now and then. As well as a few meals with your squad because I love their cooking."

"Celeste and Kaïs are on their way here."

"What?" Stiles asked.

"Something is going on, and Celeste is worried about it. It's a lot of little things. They caught a woman named Marin Morrell, and she gave them a few bits of information before she used magic to kill herself. They are trying to trace her to family or anyone, really, but they aren't even sure that it's her real name. She's not in the system under it."

"I see. Well, I welcome them. Where are they going to stay?"

"Chris has offered his place. Allison is staying with Isaac, and he's bunking down here, or at your father's house; I think it depends on if they are getting up to anything or not."

"Eww." Stiles picked up a napkin and balled it up to toss it at him. Adam caught it and smiled back. "So she's worried about everything or worried that someone is targeting me?"

"I don't know. She was using careful language, so I think she's worried about someone on my end listening in. I was home, but that means little. I would hate to think it's my team she doesn't trust."

"Who knows. It's probably more just anyone listening in, like you-know-who."

"He's not Voldemort," Adam said.

"Like he would even know who that was. He still hasn't seen Star Wars; well, he's never said he has, and last I knew, he hadn't. Though if the girl he is screwing is someone who likes it, I can see him opting to watch it. I tried all of our teenage years to have him watch it."

"So that's a good date night movie."

"If you mean like on the couch cuddling or making out, then sure. If you mean going to the movies. I'm going to shush your ass and not let you talk."

Adam laughed. He picked up his coffee to take a sip before looking over at the side. He leaned back on the table and looked at the waiter as he started to lay down their plates of food.

Stiles had a plate that was piled with hash browns coated in pepper gravy. He loved it. Adam had been paying attention, as this was something that he only ever got here. Nowhere else. He loved the gravy here, and he only kind of liked it anywhere else. His other plate had bacon, eggs, and toast. It was more than enough to fill him up but not too much.

"You get an A+ in food ordering, by the way, between sushi and this. I'll have to take you out somewhere and really challenge your knowledge. Now let's eat." Stiles held out his fork, and Adam tapped his off of it. The waiter kind of gave them a weird look. "Thanks. Sorry. I got really into it there."

"You are welcome. If you need anything, just wave. I'll keep an eye out." The waiter turned and headed over to where another waitress was wrapping silverware.

"You know, if it weren't for your being a Shifter, I would say you love food more than anything else, but your father said that as a baby, you loved food as well before everyone knew what you were."

"Yeah, jarred sweet potatoes were my favorite thing. Mom loved food, and I think that it was transferred to me when I was born."

"Celeste talks about a lot when family comes up. The pranks before their parents got divorced, and they had a country and an ocean between them."

"Well, more than one country, but yeah, the US is huge." Stiles tried to picture Europe and how many countries were between the coast and Poland. Food was too distracting, though, so he looked at it. His stomach growled.

"Eat," Adam said.

"I am." Stiles stabbed at some eggs and lifted them up to his mouth. He was pleased with the eggs. They were scrambled with just enough cheese in them to make them nice. He smiled as he watched the way that Adam ate. He had a few quirks when it came to food, and Stiles loved to watch him. It was a form of OCD, Stiles knew that, but he wasn't sure if it was just food or not. Stiles hadn't been in his bedroom at the loft. He had been in the places where he stayed temporarily but never anything when he was there long term—instead, those places he let kind of let go. Stiles could understand it. It wasn't his space, and therefore it wasn't needed for him to go insane with things.

"What are your plans today?" Adam asked.

"I have no clue other than work. I have nothing big, just a few herbal remedies to make that don't need any magic for them. Spencer is closing today, and I'll be just going in to do that work. Peter and Liam are working in the morning. Peter's not letting him open alone until he is sure that he won't mess it up. Why?"

"I wanted to do a training on tracking. Paulie isn't the best on tracking, and I was hoping that you would be the one who would give him someone to chase in fur."

"Why me?"

"He's good at tracking the rest of the team, but he knows their mind. Your mind is very different. They will have to think to track you. Celeste usually has us working against someone from another pack to train like this. Paulie's just...he's good at many other things, but tracking is no one. The last case we went on, it was horrible since he was alone and lost. We had to track him down. Cara was pissed since he had crossed his own trail so much that it took us seven hours to find him in the backwoods of Wyoming."

"Wow, so I can change that to Celeste still hires idiots." Stiles smiled when Adam laughed. "But yes, we can do that. My bag of clothes and stuff are at the shop so I can head there and give it to you. I don't mind being naked most of the time but not in front of your squad; I don't know them well enough."

"Sure. I'll go with you to the shop. There is a book there on your shelf that is not for sale that I wanted to read over a little."

"The books about witches?" Stiles asked. He had seen Adam looking at it a few times.

"Yes."

"It's Peter's, but he won't mind if you take it home. It's in there since we have had a few problems with witches' over the years. It's there to remind the people that not all witches are bad. Usually, we get the worst of the worst, really. The bad people but there are witches all over the world that have never hurt a single frond on a plant, much less a person. It's all so very different elsewhere. We get the nutty ones, drawn to the power of the Nemeton."

"Yes, I've never seen that book before. I have seen a lot of books with Helena's love of history. She's got books that are older than even the hunting families are."

"Yes. She sends me digital scans of a lot of them. My digital library is massive. It's why I have that one tablet that I read on a lot. It's best for the scans of the books. I can zoom in on the images. I've found many potions and tisanes in there that were lost to time or not having the language to understand it. It's where most of my stuff in here comes from. My professors in college were all envious of what I knew from reading things that Helena had sent me. I really should have known with how Helena snuck in books about Werefoxes in there. I feel like such an idiot. They might not have talked about it directly to me, but they let me know that they knew. Robbie laughed his ass off."

"Don't. They didn't want to invade and figured that you knew that they knew. They only told me because they could tell that I was enchanted with you. They thought it was something close to a pack bond. Kaïs thought that he would lose me to the Hale Pack, but instead, he thinks that we will both be on the edges of the two packs, beholden to both but strictly loyal to neither. Celeste feels like shit for not realizing what was going on with Derek and you before it happened. I know that you hold no ill will against them for any of it. You chalked it up to stupid urges and not understanding. You were happy for most of it, so it wasn't like you were miserable the whole time."

"How long have you liked me?" Stiles asked. He looked down to see that he had eaten most of his food while talking. There were just a little bit of potatoes left. He devoured them while Adam seemed to be lost in a train of thought.

"I liked you from meeting you, but I know that you are talking about more than that. I don't know. I know that when I arrived in town, you looked and sounded miserable; I wanted to get you the hell away from here. I think that mostly it started to form while we were dealing with the Herndons. That first flower was meant as something to help bolster you. It wasn't meant with the idea of me wanting more, but as I thought about it in the days that followed, I couldn't think of anything more. I knew that you were hurting and that getting over Derek was going to take time. So I just let myself do what I wanted. Helena found me a book on the meaning of flowers for magic users, and I learned everything that I could, and then I worked on pressing and saving all of them in the best way possible. I was happy that it was well-received."

"It was. It was a little beacon of hope during all of it. That someone cared enough to do that much work just for me. I've had issues with self-esteem for years. I didn't know what I was feeling at any given point in time in the aftermath of it all, especially after a hard therapy session, but I loved looking at the flowers. Peter got me a frame for them. He adds the flowers as I get them, but the first one is in its own little frame on my bedside."

"Yes, he told me. He wanted me to look into who was courting you. The way that my heart stuttered when he asked that, he knew then that I knew who it was. He got a little scary. I would say that his feelings for you are more paternal than the ones that he has for the rest of the Hales."

"He's said that more than once. I think it's part of why he's so close to Dad. Really, those three getting together was not a shock; the only shock was that it took this long. I think that Dad was more set on Melissa than he thought, and it was only small issues that had kept them apart, only for them to be together not long enough to form any kind of bond. Though I guess that it's also that Chris has mourned the family with Victoria for a long time. He was hurt like hell by what the Argents had done and blamed a lot of it on Victoria. She was the Matriarch and should have stopped a lot of it. He had married her because she was a strong woman. She was supposed to be the backbone that kept them apart from the people they hunted, and she let Gerard twist and warp her. Even her family won't touch her. They disowned her fully; she had no family to call her own if she ever gets out of prison."

"Yes, when it was all happening, Celeste made sure that every single person in the pack knew what was going on. She found out things that were not released to the public. Hell, I think she knows more than the judge does. A lot had never made it into the trial, but the lawyer for the case found. It was hell."

"Yeah, there was a lot of shit around that was only rumor. Dad was working a lot on finding what he could since the FBI was failing to talk to most of the affected people. Dad ended up spending a lot of time away since he was known to love Supernatural beings. They trusted him. I lived with Melissa and Scott during that. It was where he and I got really close outside of me, having just met him."

"Everyone who talks about you two makes it seem like you both were friends for like forever."

"No, it all started after my mom died. I didn't want to be around my old friends, so I found a new one. I had a shit year at school, and I got held back. I was in the same grade as Scott then, and the school kept making sure we were in the same class until we started to have more than one teacher for the school. Dad thinks I latched onto him. I have a tendency to do that kind of thing and then never let someone go. I would burn the world down for those that I love, flaws, and all."

"Yes, Celeste told me about that once I made it known to her what I wanted to do." Adam picked up his coffee and finished it off.

Stiles had just one drink of tea left, but he had his glass of water, so he drained that before his last of the tea. The check was dropped, but Stiles didn't even try and grab it. He knew that Adam would want to do that. Private security paid well, sometimes better than Stiles' own job, but he knew from years around others that it wasn't a thing to make Stiles feel like less but that Adam wanted to care for him. Stiles would be able to pick up the check other times, but since they were in a courting period, it was going to be something that Adam wanted to do several times until he felt like things were fine.

"So meet me at the store, and I can make sure that I have anything and everything was done that I need to do for today, and then we can see about playing chase. I should be good to go right after noon."

"So lunch at eleven. You got it. I'll figure out what the team wants to do and just have them meet us at the store with pizza around eleven. Anything you want?"

"Yes, pepperoni, green peppers, red onions, and pineapple. Only one place in town does red onions on pizza."

Adam nodded his head at that and looked down at his phone as it vibrated. He laughed a little and then showed Stiles a picture. It was Paulie in bed, wrapped up. "He refused to get up to go trekking through the woods to hunt down a fox in the cold, he said."

"It gets hella colder in New York."

"He's from Texas, and it's hard to get Texas out of him. We go through this every time it dips below fifty in places, and today is supposed to be very cold from what I understand."

"Yes, the temperature is just supposed to drop all day long. So he's going to love it. I'll make sure to travel over several areas of the river just so he has to get wet."

"You are very mischievous. It's a good thing that I like that."

Stiles stood up and walked to Adam's side of the table to kiss his cheek. He walked out of the diner, feeling Adam's eyes on him the entire time. He wasn't sure what he was feeling at the moment, but well covered most of it.

* * *

Stiles let himself into the Hale house. Only Derek was home at the moment. He heard the sounds of the pack running in the forest around the house, which meant that, more than likely, they were playing with the kids. Derek had just gotten off work, which meant that he was probably getting ready to join them. Stiles trailed his hand up the wall as he headed up to the floor where Derek was. He found him sitting in the bedroom they used to share. There was still the scent of Stiles in the room, old and faded, but he had lived there so long that it was never going to leave.

"You don't look good."

"I'm scared," Stiles said.

Derek waved his hand, and Stiles shut the door before he walked over to Derek. He knew that he shouldn't be there, but Derek had always been the one he went to after he and Scott had started to grow apart. Stiles would have gone to Adam or Peter about this, but Peter wasn't the best option, and well, Adam was out of the question.

"What's wrong? Your father said you were helping Adam train his team a little today. Did something happen?"

"No." Stiles shook his head and then nodded. "Yes." Stiles sighed. "I don't know."

"Okay, start at the beginning, you know, after you chased down his ass to the diner and forced him to eat with you. Gary told me the threat you put against him."

"He ran like a coward. I fucking hate cowards. I get that he was freaked out, but that's just shit right there."

Derek laughed and reached out to take Stiles' hands. He pulled him in with them. Derek stood up and wrapped Stiles in a hug. The pressure of arms around him helped to ground him.

"I am not staying standing up for this shit," Stiles said.

"Then let's go and sit in the chair." Derek let go of Stiles and walked over to the chair. Derek sat down, and then Stiles sat crossways with his ass on the chair cushion and his legs over Derek's. It was the best way for Stiles to sit when he was in someone's lap, and right now, it was calming to him. He liked the feel of sitting there, and Derek didn't touch him like he would have before. It was just what Stiles needed. Derek knew him better than anyone else. "So talk."

"I guess Paulie sucks at tracking, and he had good success with the rest of the squad because he knows them. I'm chaotic as hell when I'm shifted and running, though. As you said more than once, I follow my instincts more than anything else. He thought it would be a good idea to use me to have the team track. It worked, but I wasn't nearly as chaotic as I thought I would be, and I had to fight myself to not track prey."

"You don't like to eat things raw like that unless you have to. You never have."

"Not that kind of prey."

"Oh." Derek chuckled. Derek had been at the receiving end of that kind of hunting more than once. "So you do have feelings for him, it seems. You at least think he is yours."

"Don't make fun," Stiles said.

"I am not, Stiles. I am not making fun. I'm glad that our issues haven't stopped you from wanting someone else. I have a feeling that part of your issue is not trusting your inner self. Your fox wants him. You want him, but you are scared. You came to me, the one who hurt you. So Stiles, what is it you are scared of?"

"I don't know." Stiles slipped down a little and laid his head on Derek's shoulder. He closed his eyes. The world wasn't as chaotic right now, with Derek there to focus on.

"You do; you are just afraid of actually admitting it."

Stiles pursed his lips because the words were there in his throat. He knew the shape of them on his tongue. He just couldn't say it.

"Your Aunt has buried how many?"

"Fifteen, between attacks and just normal security jobs."

Stiles knew exactly where Derek was going with this, but he didn't like it. He didn't like that Derek knew him so well. He used to love it.

"I can feel how pissed off you are right now. Now, what did you do?" Derek asked.

"I wanted to chase him down. I wanted to scent mark him. I wanted to make sure that everyone knows that he is mine."

"You don't spend enough time in your fur anymore. You used to with all of us, but you don't trust it as much. Why don't you go home, or to Peter's and do it? Spend the evening in your fur. You need it, I think."

Stiles sighed. He did like being in his fur that evening, but he was afraid that he would end up in Adam's loft if he went home. Peter would probably just let him out as well.

"Here?" Stiles asked.

"That's not gonna help because you will be on edge. When the pack and the kids come back, they will set you off, and you won't enjoy it. Look, go home and light a fire. Lay out in front of it and just relax? Put a movie on."

Stiles loved that idea. He used to do that with Derek. He would stay in his fur, sometimes Derek could join him or stay human and just rub on Stiles. The thought was good. Stiles loved the fireplace that was put in.

"Why don't I text Chris to get it started? He's at Peter's now working on some stuff. I guess he's moving in there for a while? I never got the reason."

"Marin Morrell was caught. I don't know who she is, but she knew and spilled just enough that Celeste and Kaïs are on their way here. They are going to be staying. Chris offered his place. I would not be shocked if Dad ends up at Peter's for a while as well, just because Peter is not going to want to leave the building for too long."

"I've heard the name Marin before. Have you asked Peter?"

"He said the same thing but that it was like from a dream. He was going to look into it. His shady contacts might pull through on that."

"Peter can grab you on his way home. He's leaving the place in Spencer's hands, he said. So shift." Derek shoved Stiles right off of his lap and onto the floor. The suddenness of it shocked Stiles so much that he gaped at Derek. He watched as Derek's face broke out in a grin, and so Stiles launched himself at Derek, clothes falling away and fur taking over.

Derek tried to evade him, but Stiles knew him well enough to know what he was going to do and anticipated it. He ended up on top of Derek as Derek lay on the floor and laughed. Stiles stuck his tongue out at him.

"Well, that's a sight for sore eyes," Peter said from the doorway.

Stiles turned to look at him. He was leaning in the doorway with a smile on his face. It was the fond look that Stiles was used to when he found Stiles and Derek doing something like that.

"Let's go, pup, and see what we can get into."

"What are you doing here? I had only thought about calling you to pick him up."

"Malia called and said that he was here. I guess she's running the perimeter and smelled how upset he was. Chris has dinner nearly ready. We can all eat, and you don't even have to change out of your fur, sweetheart. Your father is joining us. Adam called me and said you were acting weird, so when you came here, I figured I would see you training, not beating the shit out of our Alpha with your paws."

Derek sat up, carrying Stiles with him. Stiles allowed it and even allowed himself to be transferred to Peter's arms. Derek gathered up his clothes and slipped them into a backpack that was in the closet. It smelled of Derek, and so Derek's smell would be on the clothes.

"Is he okay?" Peter asked.

"Yes. He's a little confused and dealing with the fact that Adam is only human."

Stiles hit Derek in the face with his tail, making him cough and sputter. He just wanted to go home and maybe curl up in front of the fire with Adam. That thought scared him more than anything in the world right then.


	16. Chapter 15

# Chapter 15

### October 2024

The smell of blood woke up Stiles. He didn't move. He knew that he was somewhere safe; his wards were telling him that he was safe. If there was blood, he wasn't safe, though. His magic was there, thrumming under his skin. He groaned as he tried to figure out what the fuck was going on. He caught a tang in the blood and knew that it was someone that he knew. Yet, he felt like his mind was moving sluggishly. He knew that he was drugged in some way. He wasn't sure what was going on.

Stiles knew that he wasn't alone; he could hear another heartbeat in the room with him, slow and steady and asleep. He needed to know what was going on, so he tried to roll over toward the heartbeat's sound but found that he was stuck. So he tried to sit up. His hands hit the bed, and they felt tacky. He opened his eyes to a horror show above him. There was blood everywhere. He looked around to see that it was all over the walls and him. The bed was tacky because of the drying blood. There was so much.

"WHAT THE HELL!?" Scott yelled.

Stiles looked over to see Scott getting ready to charge at him. Malia was right there, grabbing him and throwing him back. Boyd was right behind her, and he rushed into the room, and he went to Stiles, touching him and checking him over. His eyes bugged out, and Stiles followed the path of them to see Derek on the ground; his clothes were ripped to shreds, and he was asleep.

"I need to check him," Stiles said.

"Sure, are you sore?"

"I have a headache. I was whammied," Stiles said.

"YOU FUCKING LIAR!" Scott yelled from somewhere.

"Clear the house of the kids," Boyd yelled. "And get Peter and Calavera here."

"Yeah, order the new guy who is fucking Stiles here. He'll be believable."

"Shut him up!" Boyd yelled back.

Stiles looked at his hands. He tried to remember what the hell was going on. He remembered dinner. He had eaten with the pack at the house, which was where they were. Adam had been there and made him a drink. The pack had gone for a run. It was a week past the full moon, but the kids had been restless, and so the adults had indulged them. Stiles had led the kids on a race through the Preserve. It was fun and enjoyable. He had stayed the night since he was so worn out. Derek had offered up the master bedroom, and he had bunked down with Cora.

"Cora," Stiles said.

"Isaac is looking for her. She wasn't in her room. We all smelled the blood and started to look around. This was the last room. We really didn't want to disturb you unless we had to."

"I don't remember what happened after we got back from the run."

"We were all goofing off, dropping off as needed based on who was working when. Drinks were made and handed out; Isaac got drunk and told Allison that he wanted sex. Alison laughed and went back to his room. Then more drinks were made. I have no clue which was making them. Scott was handing them out. Then everyone kind of went to bed. The wolfsbane bottle is empty, the one that a few drops are added to drinks to make sure that they actually affect people."

"We are all a little off. Derek's just asleep." Boyd moved over from where he was checking on Derek to helping Stiles.

"How come you aren't killing me?" Stiles asked.

"Because while you are cunning, you are not like this. You would have attacked Derek at a time when you aren't even in the same state. Someone is trying to frame you and make it seem like you are. You are not that bold."

Stiles nodded his head. He looked at Derek but knew that if he got close, it could be bad. Stiles was covered in his blood, and Derek would know the scent of his own blood. Stiles really didn't want to freak him out.

He heard Derek's heartbeat speed up a little but not enough to say that he was waking up.

"Shit," Boyd said.

"He's not going to wake up on his own. I know that potion he was given. I have the antidote at my store."

"SEE!" Scott yelled.

"GAG HIM!" Boyd yelled back.

Stiles shrunk down on the bed. He wanted to get up and get clean, but he was afraid of moving. He could feel magic everywhere. It wasn't his. He plucked at a few threads with his mind, and one of them pushed back so hard that Stiles leaned over the other side of the bed and threw up as the taste of Derek's blood filled his mouth.

"It's okay," Peter said as he came into the room. He was covered in sweat and looked like shit. He pulled Stiles from the bed and took him right to the bathroom. It felt like Stiles had been gutted when he left the bed. There was something deep and horrible going on here. He let Peter strip and wash him. Stiles' clothes were also covered in a few marks, but not nearly enough to actually sell it that Derek had been fighting for his life. Yet, there was also the fact that Derek wasn't dead. Stiles wasn't dead yet either.

"Adam's collecting stuff, and the squad is talking to everyone. Your father is coming as well. I was mostly already here. Adam felt something weird and was coming here. Cara said that shit was going wrong. The whole town is on edge because something wicked has settled here in town."

"I can feel magic that is not my own all over the house. How?"

"Adam's going to look into that, I promise. You need to keep yourself settled for Derek when he wakes up."

"I can cure him. Derek, that is. I can wake him up. I just need stuff from my shop."

"We can send someone after it. Close the shop today. I don't trust anyone being away. I'll be calling all pack members here that aren't cops." Peter looked worried. Peter, being worried was never a good thing.

Peter turned off the water in the shower and handed Stiles a towel. There were no marks on Stiles' skin, but then there really wouldn't be given that he would have healed up if he had been injured. He looked at his hands, seeing his claws there in his mind. Even when he hated Derek for how he was making him feel, Stiles had never wanted to hurt him like that.

"I'm afraid of myself."

"Don't be. You are not the type of person who would do that to someone that you love. No one can tell me that you don't love Derek. I can see it every day when he texts you. He's the best friend you should have had over the years. I wonder how things might have gone if that had happened, but we will never know. So right now, we just need to move on. We need to go on and deal with everything that is happening. Boyd, figure out what kind of items we need. We will all be here or at the lofts. I want no one alone. Stiles and Adam, you will deal with whatever magic is all over this house."

Stiles could hear the rest of the house listening in. They were talking low and in between Peter's words. At least it seemed like everyone was following what he was saying and seemed to agree. Stiles could also hear Scott ranting, but he sounded like someone had gagged him.

Looking at his hands again, Stiles tried to settle down. He heard Adam moving around, tracking his heartbeat as he moved from one room to another. Stiles let the rest of his mind fall away, and all he did was focus on him. Stiles wasn't sure what happened. He couldn't remember.

"Cora was in the Preserve running," Isaac said, breaking Stiles out of his thoughts.

"Where's Derek?" Cora demanded as she came into the house.

"Up in the bedroom. Stiles is there with Peter," Boyd said.

Cora rushed up the stairs and burst into the other room. "What the fuck happened?"

"We don't know," Peter said.

Cora opened the bathroom door and looked at Stiles, and then down at his clothes.

"I went for a run at five. It's just barely seven now. How...I never run that long."

"Magic," Stiles said.

"Darach magic," Adam said, he was behind Cora.

Stiles looked up at him.

"Are you sure?" Stiles asked.

"Yes. We aren't dealing with one like before. This one is old and powerful. It's been hiding a long time."

"That's it!" Peter yelled.

"What?" Stiles asked.

"Marin Morrell. She was part of a group of druids in town for a meeting with Talia when Derek was in high school. She was young. Barely old enough to be there. She was with a woman named Jennifer. Adam, call Celeste and Kaïs, get them here. Stiles, text her what you need to wake up Derek."

"I'm not leaving this room," Stiles said.

"No, I know you are not. Neither am Adam or I. Boyd will get the pack calmed down, and I don't trust a fucking one of them with you. Cora is working with the pack to get a timeline of when people started to wake up."

"The blood was tacky by the time I woke up, and it was the smell of it." Stiles felt like throwing up, but he stopped himself. He wasn't ready to face what was in the room, but he needed to. When he stepped out to find something to wear, he found that the bed had been stripped. The mattress was gone along with all of the bedding. Derek was lying on a stack of blankets with another over him. He was still deeply asleep. It was an unnatural sleep, but it was still there. He wasn't sure what the hell was going on. What the point of this was. Other than to have the pack kill Stiles.

"I don't like that he's not breathing," Adam said.

"He is; his heart is beating," Stiles said.

"What?" Peter asked.

"You can't hear it?" Stiles asked.

"No, I can't. He seems dead except for the fact that his body is not cold."

"They set me up to be murdered," Stiles said.

"Yes," Adam said. He sat down on the bed beside Derek and touched his throat, where his artery would be pumping. He kept it there longer than one would if they were checking a pulse. "It's pumping but slowly. If it had been a normal check, I never would have kept my finger there long enough to feel the beat of his heart."

"Yes, there is something more than what I thought going on with him. I need to check him over with my magic. I still need the same things." Stiles started to list off the items that he needed. He settled on the bed on the other side of Derek.

"Your father has the bed and the clothing in the other room; he's looking at everything with Parrish. They are trying to figure out who set this up. The claw marks are weird, at least the ones on your clothes."

"Not a wolf?"

"No."

"Then it's someone who is not a wolf, but unfortunately, we have too many in this pack." Stiles touched Derek's face, and his body reacted by moving his head toward Stiles. Stiles heard the sigh that Peter let out at the movement.

"Celeste will stop and get what you need. She's on her way. She's not happy about that. I guess she realizes what's wrong with Derek by that."

"Yes, it's pretty standard. Peter, have Dad call in Rafe on this. Attacks against an Alpha can be taken over by the FBI. I don't want Rafe to take it over, but I do want to make sure that he is aware."

"Sure." Peter started to text someone, and Stiles really hoped that he was just texting Noah. "Christopher says that the border is safe; the wards ping him like they usually do. No one crossed with ill intent."

"That means that someone let them in under a guise of friendship, or they are already in the pack," Stiles said.

"Yes, I remember that you wanted to lock down the wards to where only Derek could add people to them by letting them through, or it would ping. Bleeding hearts who needed to have that access seems to have been a bad idea," Peter said.

"Yeah," Adam said.

Stiles looked at Adam to see that he was looking at him. Stiles looked down to see he was still naked. "Shit, sorry."

"No, it's fine. Here." Adam stripped off his T-shirt and handed it over.

Stiles put it on, inhaling the scent of worry that was covering up Adam's familiar scent, but it at least wasn't horrible. It was good and calming to Stiles. Adam gave him a supportive smile and then looked at Derek again. Stiles followed the look.

"Here," Peter said.

Stiles looked at him to see he had boxers and pants in his hands. Stiles took them and dressed quickly. Socks were tossed at his face next and then a long-sleeved shirt. It was one of Stiles', and Stiles hadn't seen it in a while, and it smelled like Spencer. Stiles figured that Spencer had stolen it.

"Celeste has the stuff, and they are leaving a Hunter at the shop. They have a closed sign up, but they are afraid of something happening. They put up the one with the number for the call service that you have so that you can just call and get the messages. Were there any pickups today?"

"Yes, pre-paid ones. There is a list by the register. If the Hunter wants to earn a little money, he can check IDs and give them to those who are who they say they are."

Adam was typing away as Peter spoke. Adam nodded his head when his phone vibrated. "He said sure. He found the stacks just looking around and the list. So he swapped out the sign for the one that said that orders placed before today can be picked up. He is also going to read a few of the books. He asked if it was alright if he ate any of the food in the fridge."

"Sure," Stiles said.

Derek's breathing changed again, and Stiles knew it. He knew that breathing well and moved to lay down with Derek, slipping under the covers.

"Nightmare?" Adam asked.

"Yes. He can't wake up from it, and I can't help him until Celeste gets here. I can only hope that my scent helps him calm down."

Adam reached out and started to card his fingers through Derek's hair, whispering soft words of praise. Stiles wasn't sure what he felt about that. Adam and Derek must have had a huge talk when Derek found out that he had an eye on Stiles. Though he was sure that nothing topped Robbie and Helena's shovel talk that they had given Adam. Adam was like a brother to them, but he didn't feel like Helena and Robbie to Stiles. He never had. Probably because he had no actual connection with him growing up. There was also that he hadn't been formally adopted by Celeste and Kaïs. Adam had been aloof when they had come to Beacon Hills before he was an adult but after he had been taken in by Celeste and Kaïs.

Stiles closed his eyes and let himself relax so that he didn't mess up Derek more. Adam's other hand settled on his neck, rubbing enough that Stiles could have almost fallen asleep to it if they weren't where they were, in bed with Stiles' ex. It was interesting to know that Adam didn't feel like he had anything to fear when it came to Derek. Most people would be afraid that Stiles would go back to Derek or at least have enough feelings to never give Adam his all. Stiles wasn't that way, though. He had moved on and rarely ever went back for things that were no longer something he wanted. He didn't want Derek. Right now, he wanted Adam, but things were still so very new that it wouldn't take much to break it.

"They are here," Peter said.

Stiles sat up, his body a little stiff from the position that he had been in. The door to the room opened up, and Kaïs was there with a bag. Stiles smiled in thanks, but he had no words in him right now. He grabbed the bag and started to work his magic on the items inside. The mortar and pestle were just big enough to fit it all.

"Water," Stiles said a few minutes later when he had a good grind on everything in the well. Peter was the one that got a bottle of water from the dresser on the far side of the room. It was unopened, which was good. Stiles still checked it over before he deemed it safe enough to use. He added a little and kept mixing; he repeated until he had the paste the thickness he needed. He looked at Adam and nodded his head. "I need to lay this on his tongue."

"Glove?" Peter asked.

"No, it won't affect me at all. Just whoever I am putting it on. My magic protects me since I made it."

Adam opened up Derek's mouth, and Stiles spread the thin paste on Derek's tongue. It was easy too, and then they just had to wait.

"You can shut his mouth. I need to wash this out." Stiles lifted up his items and headed to the bathroom to do it. He washed his hands afterward and looked at himself in the mirror. This was a shit year. He really wanted to just restart 2024 over with a little knowledge of what was coming so that they could know what the hell they were doing. He wanted to end this part before it ever began, and in the end, things with Derek were better, with them both going to therapy and that being what broke them up instead of the hell that was the pack finding the divide between them and splitting it wide. Stiles' heart still ached when he thought about it.

"Stiles?" Derek croaked.

Stiles turned from the mirror and looked into the bedroom. Adam was holding Derek down on the bed. Derek was going to be kitten weak for a few hours while his body healed. He followed where he wanted to head and found that Adam was still holding Derek down. He crawled into bed with Derek, and as soon as he was touching him, Derek stopped fighting.

"You were drugged to make it seem like you were dead. I was covered in your blood, hell the whole room is, I am sure you can smell it. Anyway, it was meant to make the pack freak out and kill me. Then I assume you would be given the antidote and then wake up and, I don't know, kill the ones who killed me? I am not all that sure on that point of it. Scott nearly did try and kill me, but Boyd got here first."

"Cora?"

"She was drugged, and instead of being like you, she went for a two hour run in the Preserve. Isaac found her, and it seemed to break the spell or drug or whatever. There are no breaks in the wards."

"So I assume that all of the small attacks like Malia and Liam and everything else means that whoever is doing this has figured out what they want. They will be able to do something else. Peter filled me in on the plans of pushing everyone into two places. Here and the lofts."

"Yes, the last normal people moved out, and there are now three more lofts that are empty. We have enough room for a lot of other people in there." Stiles remembered Peter talking about it.

"Wait, I thought it was two?" Celeste asked.

"Ah, the Johnsons moved across the country. His father got sick, and his mother's unable to cope alone. So they moved to help," Peter said. He was there in the doorway with a plate of food in his hand.

"Good," Celeste said. She moved to allow Peter fully into the room with the food.

"This is for both of you. I know that even low-level magic makes you hungry." Peter glared at the two of them and then looked at Adam. "You are responsible for making sure that they eat while we all talk about logistics downstairs."

"Why not here?" Stiles asked.

"Because there is not enough room. I want the whole pack to understand what is going on and what doing something against the Alpha's wishes will mean. We are not safe right now, and those who break that safety for any reason will be opening up the whole pack to be killed off."

"Go threaten," Derek said as he laid back down.

Peter nodded his head before looking at Celeste. She waved for him to go first. Kaïs followed him and Celeste left the room last.

"How are you feeling?" Stiles asked as he sat up to help Derek get moved over into position to where he could eat without choking.

"Pretty good. Weaker than I have ever felt, but I feel safe." Derek looked at Stiles and then Adam as he talked. "Thank you both."

"I did little."

"You protected him."

"Boyd did that. Boyd stopped Scott from being able to attack Stiles, and I arrived much after the fact."

"Yes, but you are still here, even after you saw him cuddling me."

"Dude, I was raised in my teenage years as part of the pack. Do you know what Kaïs did when I was upset and full of angst as a teenager?"

"What?" Stiles asked.

"Forced pack cuddles. He would hold me down, and the rest of them could cuddle close. That's how I learned that being around the pack did help. I've seen two teenagers who hate each other and scream at the top of their lungs cuddle together when the pack needs it. I've learned what it's like to be in a pack, and I know what kinds of boundaries are crossed that normal humans just don't understand. I'm no prude."

Stiles laughed, and Derek made a noise, but it was so low that it was nearly pathetic.

"You hungry?" Stiles asked. He picked up a pancake that was on the plate and held it out to Derek. Derek opened his mouth and let Stiles pop a piece into there, after he had ripped it off the main part. There was only food on there.

"No drinks?" Derek asked.

"We aren't trusting anything in the house. Everyone was drugged in some way. I have few memories after starting to drink last night, and even on the nights, I did stupid shit while drunk, I remember it all. So the whole house will be gone through. I'm going to figure out a shopping list and make sure that only Boyd goes and gets it."

"I want you safe. They were aiming for you, Stiles."

"I know. I just can't reason out why they want to hurt me. A lot is going on that I don't understand. I need time to think, and that's not really happening at the moment. Celeste linked all of the attacks over the past year as build-ups to this, so I need a murder board."

Derek laughed. He nodded his head. "I don't want you in the house, though. Go to the loft, take Adam. Celeste and Kaïs can stay here to ensure that I am protected; you keep yourself and Spencer away. I've hurt him once, and I refuse to allow anyone to do that to me again. I don't want to see more fear on his face."

"I can do that. I will be calling every day, and I won't like it, but I'll do it. I refuse to close the shop fully. Everyone can do online orders, and I'll fill them. I won't have contact with anyone; I'll have Adam or someone on his team be the contact point for people licking things up."

"I'll agree to that. Just please be safe."

"When am I ever not safe?" Stiles shoved a bite of pancake into Derek's mouth as soon as Derek opened it to say something else about it.

Derek glared but chewed his food.

* * *

Stiles looked at the board that had been constructed in the Sheriff's station. He had not been able to do it at the loft, like he wanted since his father wanted access and stayed at the station more than anything else.

"It's a random mess," Rafe said behind him.

"Yeah, it really is. There is something in it, though; there has to be."

"I agree. Let's get some food. I'll send Parrish after it."

Stiles nodded. He looked at Adam, who was asleep in the corner. Parrish was good. He was trusted, and Stiles knew that Adam wouldn't mind him checking the food.

"Everyone in the station? So pizza?" Rafe asked.

"Sure. But no delivery. I want Parrish to be there to pick it up."

Rafe nodded and headed out. Parrish would call in the pizza as well.

It was not dark yet, but soon it would be. It had been cloudy and stormy all day. Something was going to happen, but he wasn't sure if it would happen tonight on Mischief Night or tomorrow on Halloween night. It was going to happen. He knew that it was. For everything to ramp up this close to Halloween, it was going to happen.

"So, I know that I don't know a lot about Shifters, outside of what we are taught, but your pack is a little weird," Rafe said.

"Yes, it very much is weird, but it's our little pack."

"I've talked about it before to a few other people who run areas around Nemetons, and they said that your control of it is good. You shouldn't have that control, though, as anything but Alpha Mate."

Stiles nodded his head and looked at the map. Every single pin was pushed into the exact location of Beacon County. It was a large map, but it at least showed them what they needed.

"Well, Derek's never been the normal Alpha, and a lot of that has to do with trust. It's been months, and we are finally where we trust each other again. Most Alphas don't trust that much outside of their Mates. Derek's not like that. Hell, Derek's never been like that. His trust is hard-earned. So we can put that to rest. We aren't like other packs because we were not formed like other packs. We had to fight hard because the Nemeton was damaged, and it was drawing bad things here. You came during that."

"Yes, I did. It was hell. Yet you guys made it through. You all dug deep and found what you needed. Who would not like that?"

Stiles looked at Rafe. Rafe was smart; he was a good FBI agent, a shitty father but a good FBI agent. Stiles thought about what he said. It was a good angle and one that Stiles hadn't thought out.

"Did you take the area from anyone?"

"No, Derek met with the other local Alphas, and they were more than happy to have a Hale in the area. It's been good. I mean that. We've had no issues with anyone other than Scott."

"Yeah, I still don't understand, but I tried to talk to him as a friend, not a father, and he shut me down. He said that you stole both of his fathers. Which he only has one and the other can only be your actual father, how the hell you can steal your own father is beyond me."

"It's the mark of a narcissist. My father stepped in as his father, which means that he thinks he had more claim. He wants me under Derek's thumb for some reason. I haven't figured it out."

"Have there been any cases matching these in other areas?"

"Dad did a run on it, and a friend in the FBI did as well. Well, Peter's friend, but he's BAU."

"Who?"

"Section Chief Hotchner," Stiles said.

"Okay, yeah, he wouldn't fuck around with this. Okay, so that means that we have nothing matching anywhere. That means it's isolated here. Someone who just started and they have a mission or is it someone who has been hiding their tracks, and you guys have been stepping on them. How far back did you go?"

"Thirty years," Noah said as he came into the room. He had a new file in his hand. Dead chickens in the backwoods. Drained of all of their blood. Seven of them." Noah handed the file to Stiles.

Stiles looked over it, frowning as he looked at each image. There was one of each chicken as well as shots of the whole area where they were found. The coop they were in was pretty big but not massive. There seemed to be room enough for many more chickens in there.

"The rest?"

"Let go. The deputies looked and found all but one, given that it happened last night and we were looking this morning and afternoon, it's not unreasonable that it got further than the others or a predator took it."

"Or the person who did this needed a live sacrifice to go with the blood. This is old and dark magic. It's the kind of stuff that a Darach would do. So I need to look at my database. My laptop is at work. Adam is here, and Peter's running the shop. I'll text him and have him drop it off here."

"Peter's coming around anyway. I'll have Chris stop and get the laptop before the shop closes."

"Sure. That works." Stiles focused on the board again. There was something he was missing, but he wasn't sure that it was on the board.


	17. Chapter 16

# Chapter 16

### October 2024

Stiles jerked awake as he felt the bed shift. He looked to see no glowing eyes, and then the scent of Adam hit him.

"What?" Stiles asked.

"Your Dad wants you in the room."

Stiles looked at the time on his watch and groaned. It was just before midnight. He had gone to bed just two hours before, forced there by Adam. He had fallen asleep easy, though. The sound of the station was one of comfort to Stiles. He sighed and got up. Adam had a hoodie there for Stiles to put on. He gladly did it. He was cold now that he had been in the bunk, dead asleep was warm. The bunks for deputies to sleep in were not the best, but it was better than the dorms at college and other places Stiles had slept before.

"What's up?"

"I don't know."

"Cagey assed bastard," Stiles said as he left the on-call room. He walked to where his father, Rafe, Chris, and Peter were. Chris was staring at something on the board that hadn't been there when Stiles had gone to sleep.

"Kaïs forwarded me a file about Marin Morrell. Great lengths were gone to find information because her family connection was buried. She has a living brother."

"There were no other Morrells that popped in the system."

"Yes, well, it seems that she took her mother's maiden name when she turned eighteen and buried everything before that. It took the high Druid Council to unlock the information to have it found. She has one brother, alive and working in Beacon Hills. Now that is not enough to condemn him, but there is one item that does. He's not been a proactive Druid in a while. He worked as an Emissary, and after his pack was mostly wiped out, he retired from magic totally. He, by all appearances, is working his day-to-day job, and that is it. The only thing that is strange is who works for him and has since high school. He had one kid working for him in high school. Then they went to college, failed out, and then went back for a different degree and went right back to work there."

"Deaton?" Stiles asked.

Deaton was someone who hated Stiles. Had since Stiles had first met him when Scott got a job at the Vet's office. Stiles had never held back that he used magic in front of Deaton, that he was powerful. Stiles and just assumed that Deaton didn't like magic users. There were still those around. Stiles was now looking at everything from a very different angle. Outside of Scott, he had the most interactions with Deaton.

"Yes," Noah said.

"So he's a former Druid. He can't hate magic."

"What?" Peter asked.

"He always treated me weird after he found out I was a magic-user. I assumed that he hated them. I was, of course, a shit and kept on using magic around him. It just made him madder and madder, but he never told me to stop. I didn't feel magic around his place, but he did have Mountain Ash boards up everywhere. He would close his place to make sure that no one got in. I assumed that he had issues. Because there was a big deal with dog thefts in the nineties. I remember Dad talking about it a lot. A weird pack had been dognapping dogs from all over town to make their own pack of Shifters and dogs. His place was hit, and so many taken."

"So given what we know, he doesn't hate magic at all. So it was personal to you. Do you think he knows what you are?" Chris asked.

"He could. I can see Scott telling him, in all seriousness. Scott doesn't hold anyone's privacy sacred except for his own. But the thing is, what's the point of this? I mean, do we think that Deaton is the Darach?"

"Could he be?" Adam asked.

"I mean, any Druid can turn Darach. The only reason that I say Darach for everything that is going on is the use of items. It's nothing horrible, really, it's just that it screams that to me."

"So he was in the area while everything was going down," Rafe said.

"He's the one that gave Scott those stupid books that had Jackson thinking that you should be a pack whore and be subservient to Derek in all things," Peter pointed out.

"He was that bit. Do we really think that he did that for a reason? What would he have to think that he has rights to the Nemeton?"

"Peter, who was your sister's Emissary?" Chris asked.

"I have no clue. She kept that close to herself. She never said why, but I got out of her once that he didn't want to be part of the pack. He was happy on his own and didn't care to have anyone know who he was. So I can see all of that really, the pack under Talia would have been horrible. Look how much they bug Stiles for stuff that they could do themselves. Deaton had a job that was demanding differently. Stiles does help people, but no one lives or dies by him daily."

"This is very true," Stiles said. He tapped his chin as he looked at the board. "And Lydia does well enough as Emissary, but it's not always the magic-user in the group. The Hale Pack before this, though, was mostly Wolves. They weren't nearly as spread out in people as we are. If we are right that he was the Emissary, he should have stood up. He should have known that no one knew who he was. He can't be pissy that Derek didn't take him as his Emissary when Derek didn't know that. Could Laura have?"

"I have no clue. Derek doesn't talk about her much," Peter said.

"Isn't he working tonight?" Stiles asked.

"Yes, he's on patrol around the edges of the city at the moment. You could call him and ask him if he knew about the old family Emissary."

Stiles nodded his head. He walked over to give himself the illusion of privacy as he made the call.

"Well, shit," Stiles said after he hung up.

"What?" Noah asked.

"Derek said that Laura tried to contact the former Emissary as she did know who it was, but he wanted nothing to do with it. I guess he was done right about the time that the fire happened. So Derek has no clue who it is but that it is a he."

"So it could be Deaton. So we are not done with that thread. I'll see what I can find on him," Rafe said.

Stiles nodded his head. He looked at the time. It was how Halloween, and for the first time ever, he didn't feel like it was going to be fun. He wasn't going to let whatever was coming to ruin his love of Halloween. This year might suck, and he might lose the want to do anything for a while, but next year, Halloween was going to be great.

* * *

Stiles could feel things crawling all over his body even though he knew there was nothing there. He was pacing back and forth as Derek and Peter did a verbal check with every pack member. Stiles knew that someone was in the hands of whoever it was that was making a move, but he had no clue who it was. He wasn't even sure that he could talk.

Stopping so he could look at Peter. He looked ready to kill someone.

"What?" Derek asked.

"That was Adam; he arrived at Ashley's house to find it broken into. There are blood and tracks. Spencer and Ashley are not there, and the pack member who was supposed to be watching them is not there and now answering their phone."

"Track the phone," Noah said as he looked at Parrish.

Parrish darted off.

It was just after dawn, and things were already shit. If a single hair had been harmed on Spencer's body, Stiles was going to fucking gut the person who was doing this.

"I've got it!" Parrish yelled.

"Good, let's go." Noah waved them all toward the SUV's that were waiting outside. It would only take two of them, but they used three since they would be coming back with others.

By the time they reached the spot where the phone was pinging, Stiles saw who it was, and it was not a shock at all.

On their knees were Spencer and Ashley. Ashley was covered in blood, but Spencer looked to be okay so far. Stile wouldn't be shocked if Ashley had done all he could to make sure that Spencer wasn't hurt.

"What is the meaning of this?" Derek asked. He rushed forward but was stopped by a line of Mountain Ash. The barrier held up.

Deaton looked smug.

Stiles didn't even wave his hand like he usually did, but he broke it, and Derek and Peter rushed at the bound duo, which was when Deaton looked worried.

Scott and Theo were the pair to step out of the trees, but they couldn't get to the others, not with Stiles moving the Mountain Ash line to his will. Theo growled when he realized what Stiles was going.

"Where is Erica?" Derek asked.

"Don't worry, she's fine. She's out with Boyd. She never got your text," Theo said. He rushed at the barrier and slammed into it, hands first. He wasn't all that upset, it seemed. He grinned at Stiles.

"Stop it, Stiles!" Scott yelled as the barrier moved again, and it put Scott and Theo in different bubbles of it.

"Stop what?" Stiles asked.

Deaton moved, and Derek growled. Deaton stopped, his hands dropped to his side. That didn't mean that he wasn't a threat, though. Stiles knew that he could do a lot of damage right now. He followed the paths that were laid out on the ground. Deaton was doing something stupid as hell, and Stiles hadn't figured out what it was yet.

"You don't understand what is going on, Stiles," Deaton said. It was the same weird paternal tone that Stiles was used to him using with Scott.

Derek growled again, and Stiles held out a hand behind him to get Derek to stop. Ashley and Spencer were safe in the SUV behind them, with Adam checking them over. Stiles turned to look, and he saw that Adam was indeed there. He hadn't noticed him arrive. He assumed that someone had texted him the location of Erica's phone.

"I know a lot more than you think that I do, Deaton. I never even noticed you poisoning Scott against everyone. I should have. It had been a little weird in high school, but it had settled down during college and then got worse when he started to work with you again. I just haven't figured out your goal yet."

"You wouldn't be able to understand what I am doing."

"I'm not stupid, so I am going to go with the fact that I wouldn't do it, and that's why I wouldn't understand it. I know that black magic exists even in our circles, and it's what turns one into a Darach. That's what you are."

"No, he's not," Scott said.

"Poor deluded child," Adam said.

Scott growled, and his face changed. Stiles could see that he was barely hanging on. He would be in his fur soon. A weasel on the ground would be perfect to kick around to get him stuck where Stiles wanted him. Stiles had never thought much about Scott's form. Everyone took on the shape of what they were inside, but Scott had been a weasel before all of this had started. He hadn't thought that it meant that Scott could never be trusted.

"You were my brother; what did I do to stop that from being true?" Stiles asked.

"I hate what I am. It took Allison away from me!" Scott screamed.

"Actually, you are the one that pushed her away. You were acting like the Shifter that you were, was someone to hate. She's always liked them. It's why she could never be what my father wanted her to be. She saw them as people first and animals very far behind that," Chris said. He stepped up to where Stiles was standing.

"No," Scott said, shaking his head.

"Yes," Stiles said.

"I was promised her. I would be fixed. I could be human again."

"It doesn't work like that," Chris said.

"Besides, Allison is in love with Isaac, and he's a Shifter. I mean, he's an adorable rabbit, but he's still dangerous. Saying that you want to become human means that you want to change everything you are, Scott. You never wanted it, but you got it. You were born with it."

"No, I was changed by the Nemeton. I was human!" Scott yelled.

"Holy shit, he's fucking nuts," Noah said.

Stiles nodded his head at that. There was a lot to unpack in what was just said by Scott.

"It's been known to happen," Deaton said.

"Yeah, it has, just like being a True Alpha," Stiles said.

Scott looked like he was excited that Stiles was getting it.

"However, the only time that a human is changed into a Shifter is when a whole line is killed, and they want to be a Shifter to keep it going; it only happens to human children born into Shifter families. The McCalls and the Delgados both have lots of Shifters on either side. That they were human meant nothing, but Scott didn't get it from just nowhere. You are spouting bits and pieces of lore at Scott and twisting it to suit your needs. You are not leaving here without being either dead or in the hands of the FBI."

"You have no reason to keep me."

"We figured out your sister. She was caught with a group of people, and she's giving up anything and everything that she can to save her life. This means that once she knows that we know about you, we can see how much she loves her brother," Rafe said.

Deaton didn't look too phased by that, but Stiles could see that his eyes hardened slightly.

"You still can't pin anything on me."

"Oh, I bet that I can," Stiles said.

"You are not smart enough for it."

"That's from the man who needed Scott for this plan? He's pretty gullible, especially if you dangle in front of him what he wants, even though it's never going to be possible. This isn't like the fantasy stories where the bite of an Alpha turns someone into a Werewolf; it's fucking genetics, and changing him on that genetic level is impossible. Even with Magic. You would be killing him in the worst way possible. Genetics can't be changed by magic."

"You are lying!" Scott yelled. He looked at Stiles like he would be able to just know if Stiles was actually lying or not by looking at him. Scott had never quite mastered using his senses for anything. Hell, he never tried to learn how to do much with what he was. He was as human as he could get without actually being one. Stiles knew that he could suppress the senses and everything; he could make Scott as close to human as possible. Scott had turned him down because it wasn't enough.

"I am not lying, Scott. I have never lied to you like that."

"You've lied to Derek," Scott said.

Derek laughed out loud at that. It wasn't just a simple little laugh. He was laughing so hard that he nearly fell over. Scott looked shocked.

"What has he lied about?" Noah asked.

"He promised Derek he would love him forever, and now he's taking up with a Hunter! He allowed a hunter to steal him away!"

"I also promised that I would love and cherish him for the rest of my days," Derek said.

Scott looked confused.

"I hurt him, Scott. I thought that the bond we had was a Mate bond, and that would mean that I could never hurt him, but it wasn't, and I did. Even if he had been my Mate, how I treated him was shitty. He should have left me long before he did. Like the first time that I allowed Jackson to get away with calling him a whore. I should have taken every single pack member to the mattress and made sure that they understood that Stiles was never beneath them. He was higher than him; he was higher than me. I will love Stiles until the day that I die. Just like he will love me, but neither of us is in love with each other. We never would have allowed what happened to happen if we were."

"You don't understand anything about Mates," Scott said.

"You are quiet, Theo," Stiles said.

"Just trying to figure out the best way to do this."

"Theo?" Adam asked.

"Theo Raeken. He tried to take Derek's Alpha power when we were teenagers. He was supposed to be in the custody of the state but escaped. No one knows quite how he did that, but I am not shocked to see him here working with Scott and Deaton."

"You never did trust me."

"No, I never even trusted you when we were in school together. You always felt false to me. Then you tried to kill Derek. You learned not to think so little of me, didn't you?"

"I learned that you are special," Theo said. He grinned. He looked around, but as he did, his face fell.

"Oh, were you looking for the rest of the pack of yours?" Derek asked.

Stiles looked at Derek in shock.

"I had my pack head out into the Preserve. They found all of them from their points of departure. We knew this was a trap. You were supposed to block anyone from getting to us, keep me busy and then allow for whatever Deaton's plan was and then you could kill me to take the Alpha power, right?" Derek asked.

"You can't understand my plans," Deaton said.

Theo, in the mix, changed things, but it wasn't impossible to figure out everything. He wasn't surprised at all, really, that Theo had been hiding and building a pack of some kind. He was just an Omega who thought that he should be an Alpha.

"You can drop the act now," Stiles said as he fit the last few pieces together. "Even if I were to die, and Derek's Alpha power transfer, the control of the Nemeton won't move to you. it will never follow you again."

"Again?" Celeste asked.

"Yes, again. It was quite an interesting thing when I bonded with the Nemeton. It wasn't sure who was controlling it, but it broke, and when I questioned my mentor about that, he said that the person who had been controlling the Nemeton would have died. I guess that wasn't true if he was around the area enough that even the low-level stuff it puts out would be changed. You could keep on feeding just off of the power that it was putting out to protect the pack, weren't you? But now you want everything. You want it back."

Deaton said nothing but the look of anger in his eyes told Stiles that he had gotten it right. Stiles laughed and shook his head before looking at Derek.

The pack started to materialize in the trees around. There were no others with them.

"We have them trapped in the pits you put up all over the place," Boyd said.

"Good. We can find them after. How many?"

"Ten."

Theo growled at that. Stiles grinned and nodded at Derek.

"Celeste, go ahead and take down Scott."

"Of course," Celeste said. She raised up a bow and arrow and fired it. It sailed right into Scott's shoulder, knocking him around. He growled and jerked it out, but as he did, his hand hit something slick.

"What the hell?" Scott asked.

"Kanima venom," Celeste said.

"The arrow has a coating that made you bleed as he pulled, and then the venom got into you." Kaïs was grinning as he spoke.

Scott held up his hand to see that it was bleeding. He dropped to his knees a few seconds later and then down to his side. The arrow fell out of his slack hand.

"Now you can just lay there and listen," Stiles said. He looked at Theo next and used the Mountain Ash to push Theo closer to them. Theo fought it, but he wasn't able to stop himself from coming forward. Stiles didn't stop until Theo was right in front of him, the line the only thing keeping Theo back.

"We should kill you," Derek said.

"But we are going to do a lot worse," Stiles said.

"What?"

"This time, there will be no escape."

Derek moved, going through the barrier, making Theo freak out. He had thought he was safe, that he was in there and trapped, but no one who was powerful could get to him. A human going in could be used by him to get out; Derek could not be used that way.

"Don't kill me!" Theo yelled as Derek grabbed him.

They fought for a few minutes, with Derek winning in the end and holding Theo by the arms, facing Stiles.

"You won't keep me for long," Theo said.

"Might not, but I'll know where you are," Stiles said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the vial of herbs that he was going to use on Scott to always know where he was. He would be able to make more. He popped it open and dumped the herbs into his hand. They had been coated in a potion and dried before put into the vial. He crushed them up and nodded at Derek.

Derek started to hurt Theo, making him breathe heavier through the pain. Stiles covered Theo's nose and mouth with the hand with the herbs and waited for him to inhale all of them. Derek kept up the pain until it was all gone.

"It burns!" Theo yelled.

"Yes, it does; that's the wolfsbane making sure that the changes are made to your body. You won't ever be able to escape me finding you ever. This magic is bound to your cells now. Every time a new one is made, it will have it in it. I was using this for someone else, but you can be the first."

"That's impossible," Deaton said.

"For a Druid, it just might be. Not for me. Don't worry, old man, you'll, I'm sure, have more than enough time to think about everything. Anyone who would use a Nemeton the way that you have should be shot and killed. It's like the worst thing in the world to me."

"Get Theo and Scott out of here," Kaïs ordered.

"Yes," Chris said. He stepped up to take Theo from Derek. He stumbled and nearly face-planted as soon as Derek let go of him.

"What's wrong?" Theo asked.

"Your body is going to be weak for a few hours. Don't worry, it will go away." Stiles didn't look away from Theo as he and Scott were manhandled toward the SUVs. They were dropped into the one that Adam had been driving.

"What about him?" Noah asked.

"Oh, he'll get to have a lot of fun. He thinks he's safe and can run, but the rest of the pack is out there, waiting for him to do it. He thinks he's safe."

"You can't harm me," Deaton said.

Celeste fired something else at Deaton, and it hit off a shield.

"Parlor tricks meant to scare," Derek said.

"Yeah, he's quite funny." Stiles started to walk toward him. Stiles heard a few noises from behind him, but he didn't look back to see what it was. He assumed it was one of the group not wanting Stiles to get close to Deaton.

"Mister Stilinski, you don't understand what you are doing," Deaton said.

"No, I've understood what I'm doing since I graduated from college. I know a lot about magic. I think you don't understand anything beyond whatever balance you have made yourself believe exists in the world. The only balance that magic and nature want is chaos. It's the only balance it knows. You tipping that balance means that you have this notion that you know what is best for the world."

"Deatondore," Spencer yelled from behind Stiles.

"Yes, the greater good only it's what you think is the greater good, not what is actually the greater good." Stiles looked him up and down. "Take him away from here."

"I know a vet that I can get a hold of who can come and work here until everything is taken care of," Adam said.

"What?"

"A guy I met on my last mission. He was working at a place with a few different vets in San Francisco. He would hate to see any animal be hurt by something like this."

Stiles nodded his head and looked at his father. "Make sure that they are all kept apart."

"Will do. Rafe's got people coming to take the others to the place of his choosing. I guess there is an old prison in the upper county that they were working on retrofitting to be used to hold everyone that we need until it's time for them to go to court. I have no clue what to do with Theo's pack."

"We can see what they have going for them. They could be innocent. He's a good con artist. Make sure that whoever is on him doesn't follow his words and let him go. We can only assume that it's how he got free the first time."

Rafe clasped Stiles on his shoulder and nodded. Stiles looked away from Deaton and out into the Preserve. He could feel the Nemeton as it tried to reach out to soothe him. When the urge to run hit him, he didn't follow it. He instead looked at where Spencer and Ashley were. They were still inside of the SUV, but they looked good.

"Stiles," Derek said.

"Let's get out of here."

* * *

Stiles was sitting on the couch with a blanket wrapped around him and looking at the fire. He could hear everyone moving around him, but he was lost in the magic holding him. He knew that something was banging on the Nemeton, and he didn't want Deaton to get through. He assumed it was Deaton. The man was railing against being trapped in a place where he couldn't do shit, but the Nemeton hadn't let go of the connection to him, afraid of what would happen if it didn't know where he was.

"Eat," Adam said as he settled down beside Stiles. He had a plate of food in one hand and a mug of something else in the other. The mug was pushed closer, and Stiles inhaled, smelling the spice of the Chai in it. He took the mug, taking a sip of it. It was cooled just enough for it to be drinkable but still share a warmth inside of him. He was enjoying the warmth of the mug as well. He pulled the mug in closer as he looked at the food. He understood how eating worked, but Stiles had no clue how to make his body do it.

"You'll have to feed him," Derek said as he sat down across from them. He was closer to the fire, closer than Stiles thought he would ever get to a real fire.

"What?" Adam asked.

"You are lucky he took the mug," Derek said.

"Ah. He's too focused on magic, isn't he?"

"Yes. He won't mind you feeding him, but I will do it if you want."

"No, I can do it. I don't have that depth of magic. I can do parlor tricks, but I don't have enough of anything to be worth anyone taking a look at. I can use magic better than others. Spells that Stiles sets up."

"Yes, Celeste told me all about it. How you are someone who buys magic off of someone else but can use it better than they ever could." Derek was smiling. He looked good. He looked happy for the first time in a while, and that made Stiles feel good.

Stiles saw a bite of chicken appear in front of his face, and he opened his mouth. He closed it and smiled as the fork was pulled free. He looked at Adam and then leaned into him.

"AH!" Spencer exclaimed. "You've activated cat Stiles."

Derek laughed.

Stiles tried to figure out how to make his hand move to flip off Spencer, but it just wasn't working that way. He settled for leaning into Adam more and pulling his legs up to his chest. He moved his arm and wrapped them around his knees, leaning down to take a sip of the tea before he leaned back and waited for Adam to feed him.

"How often does he get like this?"

"Not often. He can get like this when he's tired as well. That happens more. Usually, if he has to do many wards for someone or something happens, he needs to be on point. I used to pamper him when he got off of work. He liked that."

Stiles closed his eyes, waiting for the next bite of food to come to him. Adam tapped it on his lip, and he opened up. The food was making him feel better, especially with the tea. He heard Peter settle down at some point, and then Chris and his father settled down after. Everyone was pretty silent as they ate dinner.

"So," Noah said.

"So..." Stiles said back at him.

"Cheeky brat. What's next?"

"Getting them out of the area. Rafe is working on that. When they are gone, the Nemeton will calm down," Adam said.

"So that's it?"

"The Druid Council will figure out what is going on with Deaton. Stiles won't let them near the Nemeton, so they will have to settle for what he tells them. Someone from the FBI will be sent to check everything out, and Stiles will work with them, reluctantly, but he knows what he needs to do," Peter said.

"You say that like you are telling him instead of telling us," Chris said.

"Not really, just making sure that he remembers what is going on. Eat, Stiles."

Stiles huffed and opened his eyes, and looked at the food. He still couldn't feed himself, but Adam seemed to be up to the task. He let the feeling of family wash over him as he enjoyed the feeling of being settled. The Nemeton wasn't at the back of his mind making him feel like his skin was crawling. He hadn't even known that he was feeling it before it had gone away. He rolled to the side a little bit and closed his eyes again. He was looking forward to being happy again.


	18. Chapter 17

# Chapter 17

### November 2024

Stiles was in his room when he felt someone enter the shop. The feel of the magic around him said it was Adam. Stiles' magic was reacting to Adam's differently for the last few days. Stiles wasn't sure what was going on, but he was okay with it. It felt good. It was like his magic wasn't on high alert anymore, and it was able to relax. Stiles hadn't felt something like that since he had been in college. There was a guy who had been on campus, and his magic had liked him. Stiles had never found him, and he hadn't tried. He hadn't really cared about it.

Laying down the metal etching tool, Stiles used the trackpad to move the pointer and opened up Skype. He didn't have a single clue where the hell his phone was. He called his Aunt.

"Stiles, I'm just down the street."

"I had a question about something. I felt something for a few weeks during school, and I wasn't sure what it was, but I had ignored it. It felt like it was something that I wouldn't like."

"Why are you asking me what it felt like?"

"No, I'm...I'm not. Where are you?"

"I'm in my car down the street. No one else is with me. Why?"

"My junior year of college, was Adam there for a few weeks in February?"

Celeste got a strange look on her face. She pulled up her tablet that had everything work-related on it. She typed for a few minutes before looking up at Stiles. "Yes. He was there nearly all of February. He was focused on the job, and then the weekend he finished it, he said that he tried to find something that felt weird to him, but it was gone. Why?"

"I've been feeling it since the Nemeton finally settled down. I didn't realize until now that I had been feeling too much from it for a while. Deaton's pushing at the Nemeton was making it want to interact with me more, and I didn't know it."

"You need to contact Gerard."

"I know that I do. I know that. But...it was him, and I pushed it away because I thought it was something that would hurt me. Which, that would have, but now I think-"

"Don't. Don't go down that path. You were young then; I know it wasn't that long ago by the full measure of your life. You can't play what-ifs. You can't."

Stiles nodded his head. He looked at the time on his laptop. It was still several hours before he had to get cleaned up to head out to the pack dinner. He would be tired from the rune work he was doing but not exhausted. His father was going to pick him up. He still wasn't allowed to be in transit anywhere without someone with him, but he could be alone in the shop. Being in a vehicle was too dangerous if someone attacked him. They had no clue what kind of defense was being mounted to try and rescue Deaton or even Theo. According to the rest of Theo's pack, there were no others, but Stiles wasn't sure that Theo didn't have people that they didn't know about. None of them were guilty of anything other than being taken in by someone who was a con artist. They were going to be unbrainwashed and then released back into society.

"Tomorrow's the first court date," Celeste said.

"Yes. I'll be there the entire time. Spencer's going to run the shop, and Liam will help. Peter's going to be stuck on me like glue, probably Derek as well.

"You are a central part of this. I know that the DA hopes that you being there will piss off Scott enough that he just blurts it all. We can only hope. He knows more than anyone else of Deaton's dark deeds."

"Scott didn't even burn the clothes he was wearing when he smeared the blood at the beginning of October. He's...he's smart in many ways and dumb in so many others." Stiles looked at the rune stone he was working on and found that he had laid the last one. It was a set of stones to help a little girl in Europe sleep better. It was for a friend of Adam's. His daughter had seen someone murdered in front of him, and while she was in therapy, her nightmares were horrific and keeping her up, which was making her worse. Stiles looked to the side and waited for his thoughts to calm down.

"You know he's going to be patient forever. You aren't going to scare him off."

"I don't know about that. I went on a rant about how Disney got rid of Jacen and Jaina and gave us very inferior Rey and Ben. It lasted four hours."

"Yes, and Peter said he looked smitten the entire time and even picked up old copies of the now Legends books to read."

"Ugh. I don't understand him!" Stiles pulled at his hair, then dropped his head down to the table. He thumped it on the wooden surface a few times before he looked at Celeste again. "Why don't I understand him?"

"Kaïs said the same thing about me several times, Stiles. Just enjoy falling in love."

Stiles reached out and closed Skype without even saying goodbye. Celeste and Kaïs were still in town until they were sure that everything was safe again.

"I hate myself," Stiles said. He picked up the two stones he had finished and laid them down into the box to mail out. Peter would take care of it later that afternoon. Stiles found the address and slipped that into the box before setting it over where everything that was going out in the mail was put. He found his slip of things that he needed to order and added in smooth purple stones. He had used a lot on this order. Usually, it was a rainbow array of colors for kids' things, but the little girl wanted only purple.

Stiles picked up his Kindle and moved over to the chair that had been put in here for him to relax on. This time it had been Adam who had snuck it in. He had found it nice to relax on. His Kindle already had a Star Wars book pulled up, and he got lost in a world of space paring pirates, Jedi Knights, and intrigue. He laughed as he got lost in the tale of the Noghri and Leia.

* * *

Stiles loosened his tie as he sat down in the booth beside Adam. He looked at him and smiled when Adam pushed over the cup of hot tea. He lifted it up and smelled the honey in it.

"Thanks," Stiles said, his voice a croak after spending three hours giving testimony in the case against Scott, Deaton, and Theo. To save time, the cases were all linked. No one had tried to get them severed, which wouldn't have done any good as even the FBI was pressing to have them stay like they were.

"I knew you would need it. Who is joining us?"

"Huh?" Stiles asked. He looked around to see if there was someone that was coming into the diner. "No one?"

"You sat beside me instead of across from me," Adam pointed out.

"Oh, I wasn't paying attention. Did you want me to move?" Stiles asked.

"No, no, it's fine. I was just a little shocked. Since Halloween, you've not really been touchy."

"I've been...dealing with a few things. I told you that."

"I know." Adam kissed Stiles' forehead as the waitress came over with food.

Stiles had no clue what Adam had ordered for him since it had happened before Stiles had got there. A pot pie was set down, and then a plate of baked chicken with two sides. Stiles really hoped the pot pie was for him since he really didn't want the chicken and sides.

Adam pulled the chicken over to him, and then the pot pie was pointed at. Stiles pulled it close and dug in. Today was beef pot pie, which was just fine with him.

"How did the last bit go? I had to leave to deal with an issue with one of the guards getting sick."

"Sick?"

"Yeah, it seems that his daughter caught the stomach bug that has been going around, but people were freaking out when he started to throw up everywhere. They were freaking out about poison, but my magic only felt normal human sickness, and then when the wife showed up at the hospital with the son who was not stopping to vomit and talked about the daughter being sick, they realized they really overreacted. I know it's best to be ready, but yeah, that was an hour of my life I am never getting back. I can still smell the vomit of the guy as I tried to figure out what the hell was going on."

"Which is why you don't want this," Stiles said as he pointed at his pot pie.

"Yes." Adam picked up his fork and started to cut into his chicken, and lifted up a bite of it. He chewed and smiled as he did so.

"As to court, the DA got Scott on a huge tirade after I was off the stand. It was kind of hilarious to listen to how I stole my own father as, yes, he said that in court. Unfortunately, we broke for lunch, or it could have gone on for a while. I hope that the DA can get him back into that when we get back. Rafe will be in the room along with my father, so I'm sure that it won't take long."

"What are you doing tonight?"

"Trying to avoid Peter and Derek as they attempt to mother hen me to death," Stiles answered.

"Really?"

"That's what they did last night, and I assume it will be that way today as well. Why?"

"I thought we could go out for dinner. Just me and you and no one else," Adam said.

"Sure. I know just the place."

Adam raised an eyebrow in question, and Stiles just grinned at him.

"We can go right after court lets out, and then we can go back to mine for the rest of the evening. I'll make sure that Sourwolf and Creeperwolf stay the hell away. Peter's acting more worried than my father, and he's the epitome of an overprotective father."

Adam laughed.

"Oh, so let's change the topic to something fun. I need your magic this weekend."

"For what?"

"I guess a group of faeries slipped into the Preserve on Halloween. They are wreaking havoc on the plant gardens I have out there, and I need to corral them and see about getting them into an area where they will be happy and content to bind themselves to stay there until they need more space. They came from the upper county where that colony is."

"You have a colony in the county?"

"Dude, we have many, but most are pretty small and have a lot of space. This was the biggest, so they split into three. There is another set that settled into that one little area in the lowest point in the county. They have already been given a huge area of land, and the Hedge Witch who protects the land is using them to help her build the land back up after a devastating fire damaged the land worse than normal. I didn't know that this group had settled here. They had been assumed to have left the county. So now I need to figure out what they want as they are not happy where they are, but my wards are keeping them contained there."

"Ah, yeah, I can gladly help you with that. Are we going to stay out in the Preserve overnight?"

"Probably. I was going to head out on Saturday afternoon as it's the best time for me and Peter will cover the shop. I need to take someone, and if it's you, I don't have to worry about you treating me like I'm fragile."

"Sure. I have a tent we can use. I'll get it out of the gear that I use. I'll pack everything."

"Sure. I'll bring clothes and entertainment."

Adam raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, that's a secret. I gotta keep some in this relationship," Stiles said.

Adam laughed and nodded his head.

* * *

"I'm sorry, Mister McCall, can you repeat that?" the DA asked.

Stiles looked at Scott's lawyer, who was sitting there with his hand over his face. He had face palmed five minutes ago and hadn't removed it. The other two lawyers were trying to figure out how to dig their clients out of the hole that Scott had just dug himself into.

"I said that I should be human. Stiles stopped me from becoming human years and years ago. Being around him is what turned me into a Shifter."

"Mister McCall, do you not understand genetics and how Shifters are made?" the DA asked. She looked like she was having a field day with this.

"I do, but that is not the way that it is with me. If Derek hadn't come back, I would have been a True Alpha," Scott said.

"How would that have worked?"

"True Alphas pop up when an area doesn't have a strong enough Alpha. Derek came back, and he found Stiles, and everything went to hell. I stopped becoming an Alpha then."

"Who told you this?" the DA asked.

"Deaton."

"And he told you about Stiles being the one to force the change on you?"

"Yes."

"How did Mister Stilinski do that?"

"Werefoxes are signs that an area is corrupt. It's why he needed to be bound to the Alpha. Before Derek came back, when I became a True Alpha, I would take him as my Emissary and bind him that way. It was the only way to clean the area."

"So that's why you demand even now that Mister Stilinski bind himself to Alpha Hale even though they are not Mates and don't, in fact, love each other that way."

"It's the best way for everyone. Stiles could still have his little romance with Adam, but he needs to be mated to Derek."

The DA looked at a loss for words on that. She looked back at her second chair, who made a motion with his hand. "Your honor, we are done for now, but I would like the right to call him to the stand at another point in time if I need to. There is a lot to unpack with what we were just given."

"I agree. Meet with the Druid from the council, and we can call him back. Do you have any questions for your client?" the judge asked as he looked at Scott's lawyer.

"Yes, Sir, but I need...time."

"Okay, then this is where we are going to break for the day. Tomorrow we will start up again with you, Mister McCall; you will still be under oath when you are called back to the stand, do you understand?"

"Yes, Sir," Scott said.

Stiles leaned back in the pew he was sitting in and looked at Adam, who was standing at the side of the room beside the guards who were in control of the room. He looked over at Kaïs, who was glaring at where Scott was being chained back up to head back to the cell in the courthouse. Deaton and Theo were being held there as well, but none of them were close to each other at all. The cells had been revamped in spells to make sure that they were going to hold him. The Druid Council had seen to that under the FBI and Celeste's watchful eye. The Druid Council was more than willing to throw Deaton under the bus and get him out of their cover. They were careful in calling him a Darach all of the time.

Adam walked over and held out his hand to Stiles. Stiles blushed and let Adam help him stand up when the rest of the courtroom was mostly empty.

"Dinner?"

"Yes. I've already texted Derek and Peter that we would be heading out to dinner. So I'm all yours for the rest of the evening." Stiles sighed and laid his hand on Adam's shoulder when he was tucked close to him. He was really enjoying being close to Adam, even if the last week had been weird, and he wasn't sure what he wanted.

Adam's AUV was waiting outside with Cara standing beside it. When she saw Adam and Stiles, she waved and then headed over to where Paulie was waiting on her with his motorcycle. Stiles really wanted to take a ride on that with Adam driving. He hadn't said a thing about it yet, but he would soon.

"So, where are we going?" Adam asked.

"Beacon City," Stiles said.

"That far? Are you sure?"

"Yeah, dude, I promise that everything will be fun and I won't get too tired on the way home. We just gotta get there first." Stiles looked down at Adam's shoes to see that he was wearing tennis shoes, which was good. Boots would have been fine as well, but thankfully, despite being slightly dressed up, Adam had gone for comfort for his feet, which would be a good thing if something had happened.

When they got into the SUV, Adam played with the radio and found the station he knew Stiles liked. Stiles leaned back in the seat and just relaxed as the music washed over him. He enjoyed moments like this. He was more than content to just sit there and let the world wash over him. Adam reached over once they were on the highway between the cities and laid his hand on Stiles' knee. Stiles laid his over it and pulled up to where it was on his thigh. He wasn't trying to be forward, but it was just the most comfortable place for it. He liked the feel of it, Adam touching him, and finally, people touching him didn't feel like there were nails on his skin.

"So I should explain this last few weeks," Stiles said.

"You don't have to if you are not ready," Adam said.

"No, it's good. The Nemeton has been settling down. It feels like I have nails running on my skin when people have been touching me since then. It felt weird and wrong, and finally, I've been feeling better about it, so yeah, I like the touching, and I want more of it."

"Good. I'll touch again then."

"Thank you for not making me explain it when it was happening. It took a while to figure out what was going on. So I want to take advantage of what is to come."

"To come?" Adam asked.

"Yes."

Stiles directed Adam where they needed to go. He knew that it was a fifty-fifty chance that this wasn't going to go over well, but he would rather know now what Adam liked when it came to this kind of thing because if this was something that he didn't like, Stiles would need to figure out a platonic partner to go dancing with. Adam pulled up outside of the nightclub and then carefully pulled into the parking lot.

"Um, spot thirty-three," Stiles said.

"What?"

"Parking spot thirty-three. That's where we need to park."

"This looks like a nightclub."

"It is, don't worry. It's pretty swanky," Stiles said as he unbuckled and got out. He walked around the car and slipped his arm into Adam's. "I can drive home if we need to. I don't drink like that when I am here, but you can indulge. Well, I drink but not the stuff that will make me drunk."

"That's good," Adam said.

"Mister Stilinski, Mister Calavera, welcome to Blue," the bouncer said when they got to the door. He opened the door and waved them inside.

"Thanks, Felix. Who is DJ tonight?"

"Star," Felix said.

"YAY!" Stiles tugged on Adam a little harder to get him into the club quicker.

Adam looked a lot lost when they got inside, but he looked okay, not upset, which was a good thing.

"What kind of place is this?"

"Membership only. Derek and I used to come here a lot, but it slowed down over the past year, but I came alone. I like dancing."

"Dancing can be fun, but we are supposed to be-" Adam stopped when he saw that the dance floor was surrounded by high back booths that had people sitting and eating at them. "Well, you have thought of everything, haven't you?"

"I usually do. We are at table thirty-three."

"So everything is thirty-three?" Adam asked.

"Yes, well, it's the number I was given when I got the membership, so yes. Table thirty-three, parking spot thirty-three, even room thirty-three in the hotel that is next door if we choose to spend the night."

"Really?" Adam asked.

"Yes, really. On the nights that I don't check-in, they rent the room out to other people. Some don't have the level that I do. I like this as it's high end enough that it gives me the isolation that I want. It's really nice, and I pay a lot for this. I wanna try and come at least once a weekend from now on out; I'll come alone if I have to or can bring someone else. I just like dancing."

"Cara and Paulie would love this," Adam said.

Stiles took that as Adam didn't mind him coming with either of them.

"Cool. I bring Spencer sometimes. We dance like idiots, but it's fun. Let's go sit, and you can look at the menu."

"You know what you are getting?"

"Oh, yes. I get roughly the same thing every single time. Don't worry, I won't force you to eat it."

Adam gave Stiles a weird look, but he followed Stiles to the table. Stiles scooted all the way in on the side that allowed for the best look at the floor, and Adam hesitated only a little before slipping in beside him. As soon as Adam was situated, Stiles scooted a little closer to him.

"Stiles," Angela said as she came up to the table.

"Angie!"

Angela laughed and looked at Adam. "And this must be Mister Adam Calavera. I wondered what had happened since you hadn't been in for a while. He's quite nice looking. Waters?"

"Yes, and whatever special is on tap that's not a lager."

"And for you, Mister Calavera?"

"Adam is fine, and I'll have the same as Stiles."

"Of course. The menu is in the same spot as always."

Adam looked at the table and frowned.

"It's online only. They don't print menus. The website changes every day to reflect what they do. It's the same with the drinks. They can make pretty much any cocktail they only have on tap local beers, ales, and ciders. Then in bottles, they have the same plus a few that are special from around the state."

Adam leaned over to look at Stiles' phone when he held it up to show him the menu.

"Oh, cranberry! Yay," Stiles said as he saw the special on tap ale. He looked at the ciders next. He would probably make his way through most of the beers on hand. It was well known that he loved the taste of good ones. He saw the next one that he wanted.

"So, how are we doing this?" Adam asked.

"Oh, we get an appetizer, then we dance until we are hungry again, we order another two, then dance. Then after we are ready, we will finally order dinner, then dance until it gets here. Eat that and more dancing and then when I am finally tired, or we get dessert and then leave once it's gone."

"So that's normally what you do?" Adam asked.

"Yes, speaking of, Angela is putting in the order for our first appetizer now. I'll let you pick the next two while we are eating. I'll show you where everything is." Stiles picked up his beer and took a sip, closing his eyes as he enjoyed it and took a long pull of the liquid into his mouth. Adam took a sip of his and made a joyful noise before giving into Stiles pushing at him.

The tour was quick as hell as there wasn't much of anything to show off other than the slew of bathrooms all around. All of them were singles and unisex.

"That seems like it screams for someone to do something wrong in the bathroom," Adam said.

"Like sex? Yes, sex happens in there. That's why it's all singles. They decided to just go with it and make it so that others didn't have to walk in on sex."

"You look like you might have done it once or twice."

"After I bought the membership to this place my first summer home from college, Derek and I rarely were in here without having sex at least once. It was easier back then. After a while, it got to be kind of normal. Derek loved watching me dance but didn't like to dance too much. I understood why, and getting him all worked up while dancing was easy. It wasn't all horrible. I was happy for a long time. We just grew very much apart. It was okay, though. I mean...I've worked through, and I don't want you to just...go along with what I am used to."

"No, I like the eating schedule that you have going on there. It will mean you feed back the dancing that you do. I like this place too. I get that it's something that is more than just you and Derek and you trying to push me in to where he was. I like dancing. I'm more than happy to dance with you."

Stiles nodded his head and looked out onto the dance floor. He pulled on Adam's hand when he saw Angela coming over with their first appetizer. Adam settled in beside Stiles and looked at the two bowls of soup. Stiles' was bigger than his own, which was why Stiles had let them know how to do Adam's food.

"Is this Pho?" Adam asked.

"Yes. I love it here." Stiles picked up his spoon and started to eat his. It was just kind of fucking perfect to him. A bit of comfort as he got used to being here with Adam.

By the time the Pho was gone, Stiles was more than ready to get out onto the floor. The lighting at the tables was more than elsewhere, and Stiles loved the darkness of the floor. Adam pulled him along until they were in the middle of the floor. It was a big floor and more than enough room for people, but people didn't come here to dance alone, so everyone was pressed together.

Stiles was a sweaty mess when Adam dragged him off the floor and over to where their table was. There was a fresh glass of water there, and their empty bowls had been taken away.

"So, what do you want?" Stiles asked. He scooted his phone over to Adam.

Adam picked up the phone and scrolled through the list after unlocking the phone.

"Hmm, I think that the shrimp potstickers sound good as well...the beer cheese soft pretzels."

"Fuck yeah, those do." Stiles waved his hand to catch Angela's eyes.

She came over as soon as she had put in the other order. Adam listened to what they wanted, and Stiles ordered his second beer while Adam was still just fine with a second of the same.

"Those won't take long at all," Stiles said after a minute of silence.

"Good. So what do you normally do while waiting for them?" Adam asked.

"Well, making out is not on the menu yet, maybe a little later but not right now; how about you come closer." Stiles tugged Adam where he wanted him, laying his legs over Adam's lap. He leaned into the side of the booth and just looked at Adam's face. "How is the pack doing?"

"Derek's or Kaïs'?" Adam asked.

"Kaïs. I know that they don't do well with Kaïs and Celeste gone for long."

"Helena is making sure that they are all well in hand. She's ruling over them with an iron fist. They are looking forward to Celeste coming back and being all motherly to them. Robbie's enjoying being a mom at the moment. It's good for him to learn a little more about being in charge. I know that both Kaïs and Celeste are going to be passing everything over to him. He wasn't fully sure that he wanted it for a long time, but I think everything here has shown him what giving it to someone who doesn't want it can cause. Not Derek but just the whole mess with Laura."

"No, I get that. Derek learned how to be a better Alpha from how shitty she was. He loved his sister and hated her as the Alpha. It was a fine line to walk with him on that. He loved and misses the sister he had and pushed away from the woman she was and the Alpha she became. It was hard to do, I bet, but he had done it by the time that he got here."

"I can see that. I really can. I've seen some of the fucked up things that other families have done to keep on loving them despite the actions they caused. It was good enough, really, for him to push her away as Alpha. He knew what not to do with Cora and Spencer. Having Peter around helped. Peter needed a lot of help mentally to get back to where he needed to be. Being free of what Laura had done to him to push away all pack bonds though had helped a lot."

Angela came over with the pretzels first, and then another guy followed with the potstickers and chopsticks.

Stiles grabbed the chopsticks and picked up a potsticker right away, and ate it, a small dip into the sauce. He loved the food here. Adam used his right hand to grab his chopsticks and then ate a potsticker.

"They do have good food here."

"The beer cheese sauce is fucking awesome. I love it a lot. So they are always on the menu."

"And if I hadn't wanted them?"

"I would have talked you into it." Stiles leaned in a little bit and grinned before he pressed a kiss to Adam's lips. "I have my ways."

Adam cupped the back of Stiles' head and kept him right there, turning the kiss from a quick peck into something longer and more drawn out. Stiles hummed into it and only stopped when Angela came back with their second beers.

"Ta," Stiles said as he lifted it up to take a drink.

"You guys ready to order dinner?" Angela asked.

"No," Adam said.

"Good. I'll stop back by at some point." Angela gave Stiles a wink before she left again.

"I like that," Stiles said.

"Good. We can see what we like going out from here. Remember, I push too much. Just tell me."

"I will."

"Good."

"Let's eat and go dancing." Stiles stayed sitting up to finish off the rest of the food, turned a little to where his legs were still over Adam's. He was having fun, and he was enjoying himself. That was all that mattered.


	19. Chapter 18

# Chapter 18

### November 2024

Stiles hadn't really thought about what the hell they were doing when he had invited Adam out with him to take care of finding a home for the faeries. It had just been a spur of the moment invite, but now that he thought about it more, Adam had only said tent. Not tents. It was cold enough in late November to not be advisable to sleep outside of the tent, even for someone like Stiles, who was a Shifter. He could do it, but he would feel it and hated the feel of aching bones from the cold. He snagged a leaf off of a tree and crushed it between his fingers, and found that it smelled good. The area they were looking at was pretty good.

The late start wasn't helping either. No, they had started after three in the afternoon instead of just after the noon hour started. A small issue with Spencer and Boyd had made Stiles need to stay to be the mediator. Derek was no good as he would always side with Spencer, even over something like this. Stiles was only marginally better, but when Spencer was an asshole, Stiles would make sure that Spencer was brought to heel on it. This time it was Boyd who was being the asshole.

"How are you doing?" Adam asked.

"Good. This area is good to stay in for the night. The trees have a healthy feeling, and the smell is good. No fresh kills anywhere and no scents to tell me that any animals have claimed this. Did Theodora get back to her group for the night?"

"Yes, she headed back. Whether she got there or not, I can't say, but she's gone from being around us, which is about as good as it gets. She's good for a faerie."

"Yeah, she's pretty cool. I heard Celeste telling you something before we left."

"Oh, she was reminding me of what the faeries back home liked in the little wooded around the mansion. We have several groups who live in the trees. They help us keep the place secure. They protect the borders that we can't see from the house, and they get to live there. The woods are theirs, but we are allowed in to train and track."

"That sounds good. It's part of why I don't mind settling them into areas, and they let me put up wards that let the Betas all know when they are getting close to a fae claimed area. It makes everything easier. It doesn't trap them in the area, but they know when they leave it, and that means if they come across someone, if they do anything to harm them, I'll be pissed. If a Beta goes into their land and is not hunting for a monster or seeking help, they will be allowed to injure. Scott took too long to learn that. He thought that everything was his area. He got the story of his life when he was cursed impotent in his freshman year of college. It lasted for a month because he kept on going into their area. I did not cure it either. So yeah, he's had a hatred for faeries for a long time, and it only got worse when they would keep on playing jokes on him. He never saw the fun in it, but I loved it."

"You miss him," Adam said.

"I miss the brother I had in high school. I miss the best friend that I didn't realize I had lost as early as I had. I think I was holding on for too long. I don't let things go, it seems."

"That's not a good thing as long as you aren't forcing someone to do what you want because you can't let go. It only really hurt you in the long run."

"The trial had been...fucking unreal. The papers that have been found in Deaton's place. Your friend is good at helping with the animals. Is he planning on staying?"

"So far, yes, but he will have the place fully cleansed as soon as he can. It's nasty in there."

"Yeah, that's what Kaïs said. I've not gone anywhere near it. I don't think that I could handle it. I've not been inside of there for a long time. Not since high school. Which is telling. I should have wanted to go and visit Scott there. It never really happened. So I guess things were very different, and I was letting myself see something different."

"Do you wanna collect wood for the fire? I can get the tent put up while you do that?"

"Sure." Stiles knew that Adam was giving him a physical task to do so that he didn't keep on thinking. He walked past Adam, kissing his cheek as he moved. He had already decided on what he was going to do for the fire. He had magic that would stop the fire from spreading and let them fall asleep to the sound of it crackling. He didn't figure that Adam would have many issues with that. Adam had finished the main part of courting, and now it was just them spending time together. There were only a few things left to do on that front, but there was no set time on any of them as there was a set time that it took to get to know someone.

The old traditions had made allowances for people living in two very different places and therefore would need a lot of time to move. The only deadline was five years for Adam to offer a ring of marriage. Which was something that Stiles was still a little...worried about. He and Derek had never really talked about getting married. They were Mated, they hadn't needed to be married, but with Adam, Stiles could see himself wanting it. He wanted to see a ring on his finger and call Adam husband, someday at least.

Stiles knew that he got attached too quickly, but it was good that Adam was more than willing to deal with that. He had known what he was getting into when he had started this. It seemed that Celeste had known before anyone else. Stiles had heard Kaïs telling Stiles' father about it. How Adam had asked Celeste's permission to even see if Stiles was willing for anything more than just friendship. Adam had been smitten long before he really should have since Stiles was Mated to someone else.

A few leaves falling had Stiles looking up at the tree that was above him. they were one of the last to lose their leaves; they were orange and red, with brown spots all over. They were healthy, though, even as they died. It was something that Stiles loved about nature. Trees were healthy, but the leaves still died when it was their time.

By the time Stiles got back to the area, the tent was up, and Adam had rocks set up for the fire, a hole already dug. It was a lot of work in a little time, or Stiles had been gone for longer than he thought. He looked at the sky to try and figure out.

"The tent is magical. I have it to where it sets itself up."

"Ah, that makes sense."

"We've been injured before when setting up, and it just does better. I need very little magic to get it going. All of our tents are like that."

"Sounds very Harry Potter."

"Well, it's no TARDIS, but the inside is roomy enough."

Stiles laughed and dropped to his knees as he started to lay the wood around inside the pit to get the fire going. He was going to use his magic to start it when the wood was ready. He needed to get more, but that could come after his arms were empty of the first load.

Half an hour later, Stiles was pretty sure that there was enough wood, and Adam had the fire going well enough to where they could cook their dinner. Stiles looked at the food that Adam pulled out and found he had actually brought steaks. They were going to cook steaks out in the Preserve as well as potatoes, and the other tinfoil wrapped bit of food was a mystery, but he was more than happy with it.

"What this," Adam said.

Stiles expected him to pull out a skillet or something, but no, he waved his hands above the fire and said something so low and quick that Stiles didn't catch it. Then he tossed the first steak onto the fire. Stiles reached out to grab it but stopped when the steak landed on something and just stayed there. Stiles reared back and then tipped down to look, and it seemed like it was sitting on an invisible grate.

"That was a bit of something that I learned from, believe it or not, a cowboy in Montana one day when I was chasing a Wendigo across three states."

"Magical grill?"

"Yeah. I just have to have the image in my mind as I cast it, and it's pretty easy with, you know, thinking about a grill. I'll teach it to you some time."

"That would be fun for campfire cooking on bonfire nights during summer." Stiles was tempted to reach out and touch, but he was afraid of how pissed Adam would be for his want of touching things that would hurt him just to know that it was there."

"Go ahead," Adam said.

"What?"

"Touch it. I can see that look. Then come over here, and I'll kiss it better." Adam laid the next steak down and then the wrapped food. The wrapped potatoes were set beside the edge of the flame below.

Stiles reached out, and his body felt the pain, and it flared even worse when he touched the magic grill. It even felt like metal even though it was invisible. He walked around the fire and let Adam tug him to sit between his legs. He raised up Stiles' fingers and kissed both of them even though they were both perfect again from his healing. Adam kissed the palm of his hand next. Stiles got to his knees and turned around to where he was facing Adam. He leaned in and took his lips in a kiss.

Kissing had become a big part of their life since the little date in the diner earlier that week. Still, kissing Adam felt good. Adam pulled on Stiles' body a little bit, getting him up to where he was straddling his lap where he sat on the down log that had been found and rolled over by him. Stiles enjoyed the feeling of Adam wrapping an arm around his body and holding him tight to him as they made out.

The smell of the meat had Stiles turning his Adam's lap. He grabbed the fork that was visible in Adam's bag and turned the steaks before rolling the potatoes around to where they could cook the other way.

"I baked them earlier; they just need to be warmed up, the potatoes, that is," Adam said.

"Good. I had hoped since you put them on at the same time as the steaks. Hey, bring your mouth back; I wanna kiss it more."

"Sure."

Dinner was only slightly overcooked, but thankfully, Stiles didn't care about his meat as long as it was cooked. The mystery food was Brussels sprouts that were coated in spices and were actually really fucking good. He ate while sitting on the log, pressed from shoulder to hip into Adam.

After the food was eaten and the mess cleaned up from that, there was nothing left to do. Stiles was too keyed up to lay down, but he didn't want to really do anything. He grabbed his bag as Adam wandered off to use the bathroom real quick. Stiles had made sure to pack more than enough toilet paper in his bag for them for what was going to amount to at max two nights in the woods.

Sties got his backpack into the tent and found that there was an air mattress in there as well. Stiles got his sleeping bag out of the backpack and laid it down, getting it stretched out and ready for him to slip into when he went to bed. He heard the rustle of the tent flap and looked behind to see Adam crouched there, looking at him.

"Why don't you get the fire to where it won't spread, and I'll get things in here set up all the way?" Adam asked.

Stiles nodded his head. The way that Adam was looking at him, he wasn't sure that he wouldn't be able to speak without sounding like he was going through puberty again. Stiles slipped out to get the fire settled for the night. It would burn out if it ran out of wood, but Stiles figured he would be up at least once to use the bathroom and could feed it again. He knew that the magic grill was done.

Adam was lying on his sleeping bag inside with Stiles' unzipped but still folded over. He had his head propped on his arm, and his other arm was resting on Stiles' bag.

"Shut the door so it can start to get warm in here."

"I put off heat but not that much," Stiles said.

"Yes, I'm well aware. Magic tent, it'll only be about fifteen degrees above what is outside, but that's better than nothing. Come on."

Stiles nodded and got into the tent; he closed the flap and made sure that it was secure so that hopefully it wouldn't open up. The tent was more than big enough for the two of them, but the bed took up a lot of space. Which Stiles was fine with, but now his mind was stuck on the fact he would be with Adam in bed when they were alone, and no one was around to listen in. He looked at Adam as he laid down on the bag, on his back.

"Why are you trembling?" Adam asked as he moved his hand to settle it on Stiles' stomach, rubbing to maybe try and settle him down.

"I just realized that we are alone and sharing a bed and it's freaking me out a little. I know you won't, but it's just...it's a lot."

"I get that. Come here. Let's do what we were doing outside." Adam cupped Stiles' hip and used it to slide him across the bed. "Keep your claws to yourself. I don't want a flat bed."

Stiles laughed, and it helped him relax. The smirk on Adam's face said that it had done what he wanted it to do. Adam leaned over and kissed Stiles. It was soft and gentle, helping to settle the rest of Stiles' nerves. He was quite happy with it as well. He was able to work through his feelings a little more as he and Adam kissed.

He had gotten used to kissing Adam after only ever having kissed Derek before. He was sure that everything would be fine and he would adjust.

"Hey," Adam said, pulling Stiles' full attention back to him.

"I'm fine, I promise. Just...adjusting. If I get overwhelmed, I would tell you. I don't suffer to make people happy, as long as I realize that I am suffering."

Adam laughed at that even though it was a little dark. He snagged Stiles' hand up and curled his hand into a fist to kiss Stiles' fingers. He tipped Stiles' hand down next and kissed the back of it before doing the same to his wrist. He didn't push up the sleeve of Stiles' hoodie but left it where it was. He kissed the middle of Stiles' chest, with the hoodie and Stiles' layers still there, before looking up into Stiles' eyes. Stiles' breath caught in his throat.

"Come here," Stiles said.

Adam shook his head and placed another kiss on Stiles' sternum before he moved to kiss his heart. Next was the hollow of his throat and then just below his chin.

"Close your eyes," Adam whispered.

Stiles did as he asked and he felt kissed on each eyelid and then one on each cheek before the last was placed on his forehead. Stiles grabbed Adam by the back of his head and pulled him down to where they could kiss properly. Adam laughed into the kiss, and he smelled of happiness and contentment. Stiles couldn't smell himself, but he was pretty sure that he smelled exactly the same.

"Sleep."

"Cuddle," Stiles said.

"Of course, how about we lay mine on the bottom and open up yours and use it as a blanket?" Adam asked.

"Sure." Stiles waited for Adam to move before he got up so they could do what Adam suggested. He watched Adam stripping down into his boxers and then getting dressed for bed. It was only after he was done that Stiles realized that he should have been doing the same thing.

"Are you-" Adam laughed and shook his head. "I wasn't stripping for fun."

"I know I just got caught up in it. I'll get ready for bed now." Stiles turned around to start to dig into his bag. "You can watch since I watched you."

"Sure."

Stiles looked at him to see that Adam was laying down on top of the blankets, looking at Stiles with heat in his eyes. Stiles' stomach was clenching. He hadn't had someone look at him like that in a long time. Derek had stopped looking at him with heat in his eyes for stupid mundane things a while back. Yeah, they had a lot of sex, but it was almost like it was just something they did. Sex felt good, so why not keep on doing it. It hadn't been the rush it had been at first in years.

Changing in a tent was impossible to make sexy in any way, so Stiles just went for the best method that wasn't going to go see him falling on his ass, more than once. He did fall just once when he was getting his socks off. He refused to sleep in socks, even if Adam was. Stiles didn't get cold, but he knew that humans did. Spencer usually started out with them and took them off in his sleep. As soon as Stiles had his shirt on, Adam grabbed him and pulled him back into his chest.

"I could watch you for hours," Adam said as he settled Stiles into his lap. "Reading, tapping, doing whatever you are doing. I am distracted by your hands all of the time. I can't wait until you are willing to jerk off while I watch. Your hand wrapped around your cock, maybe your fingers from your other hand stretching your hole open. I could watch that and then after you had come, fuck you until you come again."

"Adam," Stiles said. He could feel himself hardening just from Adam's words. He wanted that. Hell, did he want that.

"The only thing that would be better is you jerking me off and maybe sucking me off. Your lips are sin."

"Please," Stiles said.

"Can I touch your cock?" Adam asked.

"Not-" Stiles cut himself off as his body shuddered at Adam's words. "Not like this. Naked and facing." Stiles really hoped that Adam understood his words.

"Should have just stripped you while you were laying down. Get naked." Adam was gentle as he pushed Stiles off his lap, and then he was stripping down to nothing. Stiles followed along behind and made sure that he was ready to get under the covers. He didn't want to hide his body, but even the cold got to him, and he really wanted to be warm and touching. The days for naked and touching and exploring while looking could happen when they were in Stiles' loft.

Adam got under the sleeping bag as well, rolling them to where Stiles was on top. Stiles gasped as their cocks came into contact.

"Hold yourself up," Adam said.

Stiles pushed up to where he was on his hands with his cock still rubbing on Adam's. Adam used his hands to put Stiles the way that he wanted him. It felt damned good, and Stiles loved it. As soon as Adam seemed fine with how Stiles was, Stiles leaned down for kissing again. His nerves at doing this with Adam were long gone. He just wanted to feel this on his body.

Adam uttered something against Stiles' lips, and then there was a little bit of slick between them. Stiles jerked back and looked down. It looked like normal lube.

"What the hell?"

"No one taught you how to pull lube from packets?" Adam asked.

"Fuck no. People have been holding out on me."

"Yeah. I brought some, just to be safe, and made sure it was packets.

"That's fucking awesome. In the morning, you can teach me while we jack off together," Stiles said. He looked down one last time before lunging forward to kiss Adam again.

Stiles moved to be on one arm as he touched with his other. Adam was touching everywhere, and it was wonderful; Stiles was sure that he would come sooner rather than later. They rocked together, touching as much as they could until they came. Stiles tried to keep himself up, but it was a little hard. He felt content in a way that he hadn't in a long time. Adam wrapped his arms around him and held on tight as Stiles tried to get his brain to work. It really wasn't working.

"Sleep."

"Clean," Stiles countered.

"I'll clean you, Stiles. Sleep."

Stiles nodded his head as he wasn't going to fight that if Adam was willing to clean him up. His head hit the pillow as Adam laid him down fully, and he was asleep in seconds.

* * *

Stiles woke up, draped over Adam's chest. Adam was using him almost like a blanket, and Stiles found no issues with that. He was enjoying being like he was right now. Adam's hand was moving up and down his spine, and it felt good. To be touched with no real want in it other than touching.

"Derek hadn't..." Stiles sighed and moved a little.

"Derek hadn't what?" Adam asked.

"I just realized that this kind of morning, we hadn't had it for a long time. He was always up before me or asleep. I would try to stay in bed and cuddle, but he usually rolled over or something. I forgot what it was like to wake up like this," Stiles said.

"Well, I'm here whenever you want it, Stiles. Don't worry about bringing up stuff with Derek. You have all of this life with him, and it's still very soon after you left him. Being Mates never meant that you would allow him to walk all over you. You weren't a slave to him, unlike what McCall thought. I know that it was only talked around, but the Shifters in that room knew what McCall meant by most of his shit. He thought that being Derek's Mate meant that you would do whatever he wanted. There are those who like that, just like those in the BDSM world who like being at their Doms feet at all points in time. It's all about the dynamic that one wants out of their life. I'm sure that there are those who are Mated in packs who wouldn't mind being gangbanged by the pack. They would consent to it with a willing hole. Yet, they are making that choice for themselves, with their Mate. It's not the Mate making that decision for them. So they are happy with their life, and the pack doesn't have access whenever they want. It's never without it being planned."

"You've seen that?"

"Yes. It's rare, but it happens."

"Damn. That's like the best porn right there. Not the made-up shit that's filmed. I like the stuff that's amateurs doing it more than the professionals."

Adam laughed and turned his head to drop a kiss on Stiles' forehead. Stiles stretched out a little and groaned when he realized that Adam had kept them naked. The air around them felt warm but not over when he pushed his arm out of the sleeping bag. He snuggled in closer to Adam and enjoyed the feel of him.

"We have three hours until we told the faeries we would meet them again. Breakfast won't take long. Nor will a quick run for the both of us. So we have time. What were you planning on doing during that time yesterday?" Adam asked. He didn't move his hand, so Stiles didn't get up.

"I planned on just relaxing in the Preserve, communing with nature," Stiles said.

Adam laughed, and his hand slipped down. He spread it over the small of Stiles' back. "You are full of shit. You hate communing with nature randomly."

"How do you know that?"

"I've listened to you bitch enough. You don't mind listening to the animals in the woods and talking with the Nemeton, but you hate everything else. It's not hard to know what you like and don't like, given how you bitch about things. I know when you are bitching to bitch and when you are doing it because of something that really upsets you. It's all good."

Stiles nodded his head at that and settled in again. He was enjoying feeling content while in Adam's arms. They still had a long way to go in their relationship, but it wasn't moving any faster than he was comfortable with. He was, in fact, quite happy. The nerves of getting that first time out of the way were gone, and he was more than content to just let things happen.

"What were you thinking for this morning?" Stiles asked.

"Well, I thought that maybe I could see you jerk yourself off on my chest."

Stiles' brain kind of broke at that. He knew that Adam had talked about it the night before, but he hadn't thought he was serious about it.

"Serious?" Stiles asked.

"Yes, I'm serious. I said I could watch your hands for hours."

"Yes, well...there are things that are said while horny and then things that are true."

"I never dirty talk unless it's something that I actually want to see. I promise you that. One day when we are ready for that next step, I mean it when I say I wanna see you finger yourself open, Stiles. Give me a little leeway to be crass, but I would pay you to see that."

"Fucking hell, Adam." Stiles sat up and looked down at Adam. He was grinning like the cat who got the canary. He really liked that look on Adam's face. "Teach me the thing with the lube, and I will."

"Up," Adam said.

Stiles rolled off of him, and as soon as the cold air hit his body, he cast a spell to warm up the area just a little more. His cock shriveling up wouldn't make anything sexy at all. He watched Adam dig through his bag and come out with a few packets of lube.

"How much do you think I am going to need?"

"Well, you are horny, and you know that concentration is needed for magic. So sometimes things go wrong. I've even messed it up."

"I'm going to stage a protest. I went to the best magic school in the United States, and I wasn't taught anything by teachers or classmates about sex magic."

"Well, next time, go to the best magical school in London, and the other classmates will make sure that you learn all of it."

"Really?" Stiles asked.

"Yes. It's where I learned most of it. I wanted to go to it, so Celeste ensured that I would get what I needed from it despite my lack of extreme magic skills. It helped as even my professors understood that knowing what magic does and how it's cast is what most people need to know what to do. I can't block the magic outright, but I can sure get the fuck away."

"Like training an EMT on what to look for but them not being able to actually perform heart surgery."

"Yes. I think that you would have done well in school. Though you might have done worse than nearly blowing up a lab for your final project on magic."

"You did that?"

"No, I was the perfect little student, but another kid did. It was interesting as hell to listen to him getting scolded, but when he pushed, it was found that the teacher had mixed up something that he had been learning. It was what caused it all. It was a small notation that had been fucked up, and the professor hadn't caught at all. They fixed that, and it was perfect. But it was interesting as hell." Adam laid down again with the packets of lube laid on the sleeping bag beside them. He curled a finger, and it was like a string was attached to Stiles as he moved to straddle his thighs.

"Now what?" Stile asked.

Adam sat up, curling into Stiles' body, and whispering the words behind the spell into Stiles' ear like he was telling him how much he wanted to fuck him.

"If you can get it right on the first try, I'll give you a surprise tonight. If you don't, it's waiting until next weekend."

"Well, at least it's not something that I never get." Stiles picked up the lube packets, and he felt Adam's magic on them. He didn't push that magic away but just twined his own with it. He knew the words; it wasn't hard, but it was also intentions; with Stiles, it was all intentions. With time, he wouldn't need to even think the words. It would be his will that made it happen. Stiles liked the words, though; it helped with his mind and his ADHD.

"I would never do anything like that. It's now or later, and that's it."

Stiles nodded his head, and he concentrated. He imagined the lube going from the packet to his hand. He could get fancy later like Adam had by it going right to their cocks. He would be jerking off for Adam anyway, so he needed it on his cock one way or another. He mouthed the words with no magic behind them, and Adam grinned at him. It was like to Adam, it was a forgone conclusion that Stiles was going to get it right. Like there was not a single chance that he was going to fuck it up. To have that kind of support made Stiles feel like he could do it.

This time when he mouthed the words, the pull of magic was behind them. He could see the lube on his other hand from just a single packet. The one that was lying on his middle finger. It deflated, and the lube appeared in a blob, just the shape of the package in his hand. He grinned at Adam and tipped his hand to show him. He dropped the other packets to the ground.

"Good. Now show me what that prick looks like while you stroke it."

Stiles had heard of prick being used before, but it had been a guy at Yale from England. It was probably talking about a school that had Adam using it. Slicking up his cock, Stiles closed his eyes. He couldn't take Adam staring at him, so he chose to just ignore that. Jerking off still felt so weird to him. He hadn't done it a lot since he was a teenager, but he had been doing it more and more lately with him getting adjusted to being away from Derek.

Gripping just a little tighter, Stiles let his body relax some as he got into it. Every once in a while, when he stroked, he felt his knuckles brush Adam's cock. He opened his eyes to look to see that Adam was not even touching his cock. He was just watching Stiles jerk his. Stiles reached out with his hand and picked up one of Adam's, laying it on his thigh. "Touch me."

"Fucking hell," Adam said, but he did it. He reached up with his other hand and gripped Stiles' thigh. It was enough to bruise, and even Stiles felt the bruise healing as he did it. Adam's other hand trailed up Stiles' body, settling in on his stomach for a few before moving up to play with Stiles' nipple. There was a question in his eye when he did it, and Stiles nodded his head. Adam thumbed over it, and that little spike of pleasure coursed through Stiles' body. He wasn't going to be able to keep himself from coming for long.

"Soon," Stiles said.

"Whenever you want, baby, whenever you want."

Stiles nodded his head and gripped his cock just a little tighter. Adam barely brushed his balls with a hand, and it was enough to tip him over. He kept on jerking until it was too much. He shuddered and looked down to see that there was a good bit of spend on Adam's chest. Then he noticed that Adam's cock was limp and laying on his thigh.

"Well, there is there."

"I have a hair-trigger in certain circumstances, and just feeling your magic when you came got me off."

"What?"

"Yeah, I can feel that. You'll feel it too if you focus."

Stiles looked at Adam and tried to understand magically feeling each other orgasm. It was something he really wanted to play with. He grinned at Adam and laughed when he saw the look of delighted fear on his face.


	20. Chapter 19

# Chapter 19

### November 2024

Stiles grabbed the large box with the food in it that he was bringing. A few spells and the food would stay perfectly warm inside until it was time to eat. It had been so much easier to cook without the pack all around him. Though he had never cooked this around the pack. He had always gone to his father's where the items he needed were. Yesterday, his father had brought them over and told him that he had his own place where people respected his stuff, and that meant they were his now. Stiles was enjoying learning how to live with the pack. It had started as a horrible thing that he had hated, but as he had gotten used to it and having Peter, Spencer, Adam, and his squad in the same building had helped. Lydia was there as well, but she and Parrish were settling in together. Lydia didn't leave much outside of everything to take care of the kids and work. Parrish was seen out a lot more.

Jackson had ended up moving in with Danny across town. Which had been a little weird as everyone thought that he and Danny were having sex, but Stiles knew that they weren't. Danny was probably one of the few people that wasn't attracted to Jackson just on his looks. Stiles was pretty sure that Danny had been in love with Jackson for years, though. It wouldn't take much for Jackson to snag him if Jackson was over Lydia. Danny wasn't ever going to play second fiddle. He loved Jackson and Lydia's kids, though. He and Lydia were good friends. Stiles also thought that Lydia knew that Danny was in love with Jackson. Danny, though, wanted Jackson happy more than he wanted anything else. He was okay being a good friend to him, and maybe one day they would be on the same page finally, but he didn't live with regrets. He had all of Jackson that Jackson was willing to give, and that was enough for him. Stiles was pretty sure that Danny was more than happy with what he had going for him.

"What is that?" Adam asked as he came into Stiles' loft. He was dressed in sleep pants still and looked mostly still asleep.

"What?" Stiles asked.

"It's nine in the morning on Thanksgiving Day; there is no godly reason to be up this early."

Stiles raised an eyebrow at that.

"There is no godly reason to be up this early after last night."

Stiles laughed at that. "I woke up at six, ready to go, so I started to get ready for Thanksgiving dinner."

"You don't cook. Peter told me to never let you cook. Derek told me to never let you cook. Everyone but your father has told me not to let you cook."

"And what did my father tell you."

"That I wasn't allowed to let you cook anything but home cooking. I was afraid of what he meant by that."

"What he meant by that was not to let me cook anything but Polish food."

"What are you making for Thanksgiving that's Polish?" Cara asked as she came in next.

It looked like Stiles had attracted all of them with the smell of his food. The other three were right behind Cara, all looking sleep ruffled.

"Well, it's a good thing I was about to head down with breakfast, huh?" Stiles opened up the oven that was set at 130 degrees and pulled out the pan with breakfast for the five of them. He had already planned on feeding them since he was part of why they had been up so late and got drunk.

"You are too chipper for this early with how drunk we all got last night," Bee said.

"Yes, Peter hates it too. We don't know if it's a me thing or a Werefox thing. I've never asked anyone. Kind of hard to ask your mentor about it when you are in college and not supposed to be drinking. Then I just got used to it and never thought a thing about it."

"That sounds like college was fun," Adam said.

"Heh, I didn't have classmates teaching me sex magic."

"ADAM!" Cara yelled.

"What? He's a full assed grown adult. And also, if I want to teach my boyfriend sex magic, I'm going to."

"Celeste is going to kill you," Bee said.

"No, she won't. Other than if I hurt him during sex, she wants to know nothing about it. Go ahead and try."

"Who thought that allowing them two to date was a good idea?" Paulie asked.

"No one else was asked beyond Stiles and me."

Stiles laughed at Adam's answer to that. He waved them all over and laid out the tray of pierogies stuffed with meat, egg, cheese, and potatoes.

"I smell bacon," Jake said.

"Yes, bacon and sausage, and...ham?" Cara said.

"Yes. Each color is different filings. All are meat, cheese, egg, and potatoes. One is bacon, they are the pale red ones, ham is green, and the normal color is sausage. Breakfast pierogis."

"Jackson was raving about the Thanksgiving pierogis the other day," Cara said as she picked up a bacon one and popped it whole into her mouth. She chewed, and then her eyes bugged out.

"AH!" Stiles yelled as everyone started to grab for them. "There is enough for eight of each for humans and thirteen for Weres."

Adam glared at Stiles, who stuck his tongue out at him.

"You can all take what your portion is now, and I want to see no one fighting. Bowls are in the cupboard, and there are also peppers and onions on the stove. I know that Cara can't have the peppers. So I didn't cook them into the perogies. Of the ones that are going to thanksgiving dinner, there is a pot just for you, Cara."

"Thanks," Cara said as she continued to chew what was in her mouth.

"There is shredded cheese if you want to add more to the top; once you pile it on, they should be warm enough to melt it all." Stiles started to get his food out, and Adam was there beside him doing the same. Stiles snagged a good bit of the peppers and only a few onions. He spread them around and mixed it all together. He didn't get the extra cheese as what was inside was enough for him. He walked over to sit down at the island and wasn't shocked when Adam was right there.

Adam was a lot like Derek in that he liked to be beside Stiles all the time. The big difference was that with Adam, it was just a want to be around Stiles, not that he wanted to remind people that Stiles was his.

"You are in a lot of trouble," Adam said a few minutes later.

"What?" Stiles asked.

"You have been hiding this from me. I mean, after everyone telling me that you needed to not cook, I was afraid of you boiling water for tea," Adam said.

Stiles laughed, and the others joined in on it. It was rather hilarious.

"Well, I guess most everyone forgot. I tried making a few dishes once after I graduated high school, but no one liked them. My items for pierogies were at Dad's because they all break too much stuff, and the tools for the dough tools are all moms, and I didn't want them destroyed. I usually got up early and made them at Dad's, then brought them over later with him. So I assume that most everyone thinks that Dad makes them. Even though he works the day shift so that the families that do it early can have that, he gets off in time for the meal. I seriously think that most of the pack is kind of stupid. It works in my favor a lot as they overlook me, but I know that it led to how things came to a head and the deep divide in the damned pack."

"Well, we ended up with you, so it's a win." Jake was grinning as he talked.

"Woah, I am not in the Gajos pack," Stiles said.

"We know that stupid, but you are here in this building where we can talk you into these things for dinner at least once a day."

"Dinner at least once a day?" Stiles asked.

"Couldn't hurt to try." Jake was grinning, and he shoved another pierogi into his mouth.

"Once a month?" Cara asked.

"I could do us a good Polish meal once a month, pierogies every time and other things as well."

"That's a yes," Cara said.

Stiles smiled and looked down at his food. It had been too long since someone had liked his cooking other than his father. Stiles had spent years getting everything right after his mother had died. He had made sure that he could make the food just right.

"So who taught you?"

"Mom. Why would Dad have?" Stiles asked.

"Stilinski, spelling is pretty Polish."

"Ah, no, it was a Y to begin with, but Ellis Island fucked it up, and by the time that it was figured out, it was just easier to keep it with an I. Dad's family is from more east than Poland. He calls himself an Eastern European mutt since his family can't really trace where they were from before Ellis Island. I used to love making up shit when I was a kid. That they were on the run, and the name change was perfect for them to hide away. I had some pretty wild stories at one point."

"Sounds like just what every child's brain needs to grow and expand," Bee said.

"Yeah, Dad encouraged it. I wrote a story about it for fourth grade when we had to write. I ended up tripling the maximum count. The teacher wasn't that upset even though I got one point off for going over."

"Just one point?" Adam asked.

"Yeah, that's what Dad said too. Anyway, they never really cooked, especially not Dad's dad. He was an abusive fuck. Grandma died early, and she wasn't the best at cooking anything that was pretty much meat and potatoes, Dad said. So yeah, Mom was the cook, but Dad did well when he was not too tired from work. He tried with me, but he worked so much. I was left alone more than anything, and when I was too young, I was just at the station with deputies and not him."

Stiles watched the five as they took that in. None of them said anything, which Stiles was glad of.

"So how long until we leave?" Adam asked.

"I said I would be there at four. You guys don't need to be there until five. Dinner is at five-thirty."

"Why so early?" Cara asked.

"We eat outside. There are more people than can fit inside the house unless we want to eat in four different rooms. So there is a large outside area. We have the outside heaters, but what I do is set up some spells to keep the warmth inside of the bubble but not overly hot, just like the mid-sixties, so that people can be comfortable. The kids run through the areas and have no issue with any of it. I've perfected it over the years. It stops the heaters from having to be so high that the people closest roast and the one's furthest freeze."

"You could do it in another place," Paulie said.

"Before this year, there wasn't a place big enough without renting, and those kinds of places come with shitty kitchens or smells that set the pack off. Peter's offered up his place for Christmas. There is a large enough area that if we buy tables, we can store them in the basement area and bring them up when needed. If Christmas goes well, all of the pack meals will be there. I can do the cooking that I do up in mine. Lydia's offered up her kitchen with her help, and Boyd can take over Peter's. They work well together."

"Sounds like you guys have it all planned," Adam said.

"Yeah, that happened last night, not nearly enough time for it all. So we have time to make Christmas happen."

"It sounds fun. I hope we are around for it," Paulie said.

"I don't figure that there is any case that we could be working on this coast that we couldn't take a day break. Nothing big has been happening, just small shit."

"Don't jinx us," Jake said.

"So given that even the humans have devoured their food, my pierogies are a hit?" Stiles asked.

"Yes," all five of them said at the same time.

Stiles laughed and leaned back on the stool, stretching out his back. He shook himself out as he relaxed back down and looked at Adam, who was looking in the living room area.

"What?" Stiles asked.

"Well. I thought maybe we could watch a few movies. It's still early. We could head out and pick up pizza for lunch or make it. I don't care either way. Just relax before we head into the insanity that is the pack eating together."

"Works for me. I have almost everything for pizzas here. The stuff for the dough is easy. I have pizza dough yeast as I can usually not fuck that up."

"Bee and I can handle pizza," Paulie said.

"Do you have enough baking sheets?" Bee asked.

"Yes, we can cook three at once in the oven and then another three after those. I did that the other night when a few of the guys were over."

"Guys?" Cara asked.

"Parrish, Derek, Peter, Spencer, Ashley, Lydia's kids."

"So gender neutral guys."

"Yeah, guy and dude are neutral in this house," Stiles said.

Adam stood up and pulled Stiles with him into the living room. Stiles wasn't shocked when he was tugged down on top of Adam on the couch. There was enough room for the rest of the pack elsewhere; they wouldn't have to give up their couch. Stiles braced his arms on the arm of the couch and leaned down to kiss Adam. They kept the kisses light while the rest of the squad cleaned up from them eating. Stiles liked the sound of them moving around him and Adam. It was calming to have people that he trusted around him.

"We are here now, stop," Cara said as she smacked a pillow off of Stiles' ass. It shoved him down, and they rutted together for a few seconds before stopping, grinning at each other. "Ugh."

"You brought that shit on yourself," Adam said.

Stiles laid down on Adam. Slotting himself partially on him and then on the couch between Adam and the couch's back. It wasn't the best way to lay, but they really like to do it when watching TV. Stiles could also slip into a nap. He enjoyed it a lot, just cuddling. Adam's hand moved up his back and then to the back of his head, scratching there. It didn't take long for that to push Stiles down into sleep.

* * *

The house got crazier and crazier as more and more of the pack arrived. Stiles made sure that he stayed calm as he worked on the spell work. It was the last one. He heard someone coming up behind him but wasn't that focused on the heartbeat's sound to know who it was. A glass of wine appeared in his line of sight, and Stiles took it. He knew the hand.

"Thanks," Stiles said.

"Derek said you were thirsty. Don't worry, it's the kind that tastes good and won't get you drunk. I heard you drank Adam and his squad into the ground last night." Jackson stepped to where Stiles could see him.

"Yes, they got to see what it was like. I fed them this morning as an 'I'm sorry I drank you guys under the table and am set to go at six in the morning' meal."

"Your post-drinking pierogis were always the best," Jackson said.

Stiles looked at him. Jackson looked happier than he had in a long time. Happier than he had been even in high school. Stiles was pretty sure he hadn't looked this way since before he found out, he was adopted. He had accepted everything enough to where he wasn't the Kanima anymore. He still could shift to it, but he wasn't ruled by any master. His Peacock form, though, always had a few scales from the Kanima on it. Like it was showing them that he wasn't a normal Werepeacock.

"Maybe the next time we do a night like that, you'll come." Stiles wasn't sure that he really actually wanted Jackson around, but he could hold out that branch.

"Maybe. I'm going back to school to finish my degree. I'm going to become a lawyer. Danny's supporting me through it. He says going to help me until I get it all done. The law program at Beacon University is a good one. It's not the best, but I don't have to leave. I don't have to leave the kids and Lydia. I know why we grew apart, and I mean, I think that mostly we were staying together first because we were scared of letting ourselves love anyone else, and then it was the kids. She's happier with Jordan than she ever was with me."

"Now we just have to find someone for you, when you are ready," Stiles said.

"I've already got who I want; now I just have to show him that I'm all in. It's going to take time, and I'm okay with that. He's been there the whole time, and I've never seen him that way. I'm starting to, and I think that maybe he was who I should have been with the whole time."

"He's a good man who has loved you for a long time. He never wanted you to know, though, because he respected you and what you had with Lydia."

"I know. I nearly pushed him away when I found out. I couldn't understand why he would do that to himself. Why he would stay close to me like that. Do you know what he said?"

"It was better to have your friendship than to have none of you at all."

"How did you know?" Jackson asked as he stepped around to face Stiles.

"It was pretty obvious, also; get him drunk and maudlin, and he talks about it. I made sure that I was the only one around him if he was getting to that level. It was something that no one else needed to know. I'm sure that Peter knew it as well. He protected him as well."

"I hated you," Jackson said.

"I know."

"You...your life was shit before all of this. You were bullied by the lacrosse team, your father would rather work than spend time with you, your best friend would rather date than spend time with you. Then you found Derek, and things started to get better. You and Derek built this damned pack, and because Scott was pissed off that he wasn't going to be whatever he thought he was going to be and because I was jealous, we nearly destroyed it."

"Jackson, we've been through this. I am not upset with you. I'm not pissed at you. We are good."

"It's Thanksgiving, and Derek's going to make us talk about shit that we are thankful for, but I don't want to do this in front of the whole pack and the Gajos pack that's here either. I'm thankful for the fact that even though you could have killed me for half of the shit that I said, you never did. You could have killed me the first time I called you a whore. I had so much anger inside that I thought was gone. I'm still going to therapy once a week, and we've been talking a lot lately about the things that I screwed up with my anger. I nearly lost my family, my pack, and you made sure that Derek didn't just throw me out even though I didn't deserve it. I took that stupid book, and I internalized it. Lydia was fucking pissed when she found out. That's why she left with the kids. She didn't want me tarnishing them with my stupid assed thoughts. She had her own issues on what she knew was happening, but she wasn't stopping the other shit from happening."

"She's already talked to me, Jackson. I'm good with her as well."

"You are too forgiving."

"I'm really not. You forget what I used to do to you and the rest of the team when you were fucking with Scott. I don't forgive and forget easily at all. It could be said that I will never forget. You guys might think that I have put it all behind me, but I haven't, on a personal level. On a pack level, I'm not going to sit there and be the kink in helping this pack heal. I've been on the far side of the divide; you and Scott and your little band made sure of that. I'm not going to do that to you. I would never make anyone feel like that, but I'll never be as close to you as I am, say Spencer and the others who were on my side."

Jackson nodded his head. There was the sound of the back door opening and shutting. Stiles turned to look to see that it was Derek with his own glass of wine as well as a bottle. He held it out. Stiles drank down his last few sips before he held his glass out for a refill. Derek filled it up and then shook the bottle at Jackson, who nodded. Derek dumped the last of the bottle into the glass.

"Peter sent me out to make sure that you two weren't going to get into a fight out here."

"Nope," Stiles said. He took a sip of his wine and looked at Jackson.

"No, we are just burying...yeah, that's not something I want to say. We are making the last overture on our little rift."

Derek laughed; his eyebrows were trying to escape his head with how far they were rising up.

"Also, Lydia and the kids just arrived. There was talk of trying to make their new dog look like a turkey."

"Fucking hell," Jackson said. He drained his wine in a single uncouth drink and handed the glass to Stiles. He took off on a run around the house.

"Who thought that getting Lydia and Jackson's kids a dog was a good idea?" Stiles asked.

"Parrish."

"Well, yeah, that does seem like something that boy scout would do. So does this meet your approval, Alpha mine?" Stiles asked as he waved his hand around.

"Yes. It's nice and warm, which is good as the baby is...still not wanting to stay in clothes. Lydia arrived with her in only a diaper, and I don't think that it will last long at all."

"There are adults who don't like to stay in their clothes either," Stiles pointed out.

"Celeste and Kaïs are in the kitchen, giving Peter and Boyd hell. Adam and his squad have not revealed the pierogis. Which I think will be a good surprise. What kind did you do this year?"

"OH, seven kinds of the traditional and then one that's a Puritan."

"That's usually with leftovers."

"Well, we can't eat it with leftovers on Thanksgiving day. I'm sure that a few will enjoy it. It's the bright red dough one. I've got enough for everyone to try one plus extras."

"What time did you wake up?"

"Oh, I was up before five. It was a very productive morning. I took a nap, though, after breakfast with Adam. I fell asleep on him on the couch while we watched movies. I'm ready to go for this." Stiles took a drink of his wine and looked at the tables that had been brought out of every space in the house. There was only one other table that Stiles knew was from the Sheriff's station. "Who is doing the run to the station?"

"No one. All of them vetoed the turkey dinner since they were given it last night from the boy scouts and then today for lunch. I'm nearly done on turkey myself. So Peter is having enough Chinese and Thai being dropped off in an hour to feed them and the midnight shift, and there will probably be leftovers for the morning shift if they want to eat that."

"No one had issues with you, Dad, and Parrish having the evening off?"

"No. They understand enough about that, and really, Parrish is back in this evening since he's taking Lydia out on a date tomorrow night. The Black Friday shopping is going to be shit, and we are all taking that shift. Most of the deputies would rather never work Black Friday morning."

Stiles laughed. He nodded his head. His father bitched about it every single year, but as Sheriff, he had to be seen. He was always willing to just do nothing afterward, so Stiles already had plans to have him and Derek come over to his loft afterward, and they could relax and eat whatever Stiles fed them.

"He's still doing good, right? His heart and everything?"

"Yes, Stiles. I would let you know. It sounds strong, and there are no issues that I can hear or smell."

Stiles nodded his head.

"We should go make sure that Celeste and Kaïs don't piss off Peter enough to have him run away." Stiles slipped his arm into Derek's and pulled him along.

Adam was there in the kitchen with what looked like a glass of wine in his hand. Stiles sniffed and found that it was just sparkling grape juice that they had on hand for the kids. Stiles laughed and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

"Beer with dinner, I'm not going to just sit here and get more alcohol into me," Adam said.

"It's not right," Celeste said.

"What?" Adam asked.

"There is nothing of our family here."

Stiles laughed, and he walked over to his large box. He opened it up, making sure no smell escaped. He grabbed one of the more traditional filled pierogies, and as soon as he turned, he tossed it at Celeste. She snagged it out of the air and frowned before she took a bite. She hummed as she ch3wed, slapping Kaïs' hand away when he tried to take the other half.

"Get your own."

"Stiles is hoarding them. Share with your Mate," Kaïs said.

"Oh, I thought you would like this one better." Stiles tossed one at the Werewolf.

Kaïs caught it and took a bite, grinning.

"How did you get that recipe?" Celeste asked as she eyed his. She held out her half, and he gladly traded.

"Helena is easy to bribe when she really wants something," Stiles said.

"How long have you had it?"

"Oh, years. I blackmailed her into it when I was in college. It was fun to get it down. She left a few things out, but I figured them out. Once I had it down, I sent her pictures of Derek enjoying it. She was pissed. She thought she had fucked me over," Stiles said.

"You and your little spies."

"As long as you aren't calling them his little birds, we are fine," Peter said. He looked at each of them. "If you are not cooking, get the hell out of my kitchen."

"What he said," Boyd said.

"Fine, I just came in to get Celeste and Kaïs out of here." Stiles grinned at them and pointed. Celeste showed him that she was a grown woman and stuck her tongue out at him. She left, though, taking Kaïs with her. Derek followed along behind them. Adam wrapped an arm around Stiles' stomach and dragged him backward.

"The kids want you."

"The kids want to chase me."

"What?" Adam asked.

Stiles took the lead, and then they were exiting the house into the side yard where the kids were all playing. There were fifteen kids under the age of fifteen; not all of them were Shifters.

"YAY, you found him!" one of the youngest who could speak said. He rushed over to Stiles and began to climb him.

Stiles drank what was left of his wine and then handed that to Adam. He looked Adam up and down. "How attached to those clothes are you?"

"Not very. It's just clothing. Why?"

"Did you bring more?"

"Yes, though I still don't know why Peter thought that I would need a second set."

"You guys get to chase two people this year!" Stiles yelled, and he started to strip as much as he could with a child clinging to him. When he got to his boxers, he just shifted. As soon as the kid was on their ass, giggling, Stiles took off, leading the kids around the side yard before he rushed at Adam. The kids all jumped on Adam, taking him down and getting him just a little dirty. More was going to come.

Stiles waited until the kids were all standing again, a few had Shifter to their animal form, but many were still human. That wouldn't last long either. Stiles let out a howl that had a few other adults in the pack responding. They all knew that it meant that Stiles was headed out with the kids. He dashed into the area that was set up for this. He had marks on the trees that told the Shifter kids where not to go, and the human kids always followed along behind.

"Adam, your job is to make sure the human kids don't get left. GO!" Jackson yelled as Stiles was getting just far enough that the sounds of the house were fading.

Forty minutes later, a howl pierced the air, so Stiles nudged at a few of the kids who were in fur, and Adam started to get the others up and moving. They were all flopped out on the ground, enjoying the little sun that they were getting while cooling down from their run.

Derek was waiting for them in the same spot they had taken off from with Stiles' clothes folded and laid down on the small porch while Adam's go-bag was sitting beside it.

"Find your parents and get dressed and cleaned up. The last to get ready gets pie last!" Derek said.

The kids all took off, not even going into human skin but staying in fur if they were already in it. The human kids all ran as fast as they could.

"How did that start?"

"When we only had three kids, there was an issue, and dinner was late, so Stiles and I entertained them by playing in the Preserve with them. They were cranky and hungry, but at least they were distracted. It kept on happening, though, as the older kids wanted to do it the next year and the next. I stopped several years ago as usually, I work until just right on time to get here. Usually, it's Spencer and Stiles now, but Spencer gave that job to you last night."

"No wonder I was told to bring more clothes. It was fun. I liked it," Adam said.

Stiles started to wind his way through Adam's legs until he crouched down and began to pet at him, plucking stuff from his fur as he did.

"There is a shower in the mudroom here. You can both fit in it to clean off before getting dressed again. No shoes are fine for the meal; most of the kids won't be wearing them and probably a few others as well. We aren't too fussed on what kind of clothing is worn as long as the waist is covered up." Derek rubbed at the back of his head like he was a little embarrassed. "Don't have sex in the shower." Derek spun and rushed back into the house.

Stiles laughed, making sure that Derek could hear it the whole way as he ran away. When he was sure that Derek was gone, Stiles shifted back to human, with mud all over his hands and legs. "The kids will be kept away from the area, but yeah, Derek is saying that because he did try and talk me into sex, and we did it once after this. The jokes were horrible about the smell. So let's get cleaned up and then get our turkey on. They won't start food until we get there. I promise, but we should hurry."

Adam grabbed Stiles' hand and pulled him into a kiss. He cupped the sides of Stiles' face, and Stiles was pretty sure that he was telling him with a kiss what he felt that he couldn't put into words yet. Stiles was okay with that because he had a lot of feelings as well.


	21. Chapter 20

# Chapter 20

### December 2024

Stiles shoved the register closed and watched the couple leaving with their teas in hand and a few books. Being in Books of Iniquitea alone was something that Stiles was still getting used to. Spencer was out with Ashley, enjoying a rare Saturday off. Despite the approaching holiday in just four days, Stiles' shop was never that busy on the weekend before Christmas. He wasn't even sure that he was going to be busy at all the day before Christmas. Most of his regulars had their orders in and had already picked them up or had come into the shop to pick up what they needed. He would have on and off gawkers over the rest of the day and make a little money. He had more than enough money already made in the candle he made to burn that would stop faeries from coming into a house and making a home in the Christmas trees, in the potions to calm everyone the fuck down and stop Christmas fights. He made up the little sets for buying for kids who had a little bit of magic and wanted to learn more about it in a fun way. There were always enough things that he sold that he never had to worry about money.

The door chiming had Stiles looking up. It wasn't Adam or Peter, which struck Stiles as odd. Not that they needed to be there when he was, but that they hadn't been around at all. Stiles' Saturday hours were shorter during winter, so he closed at five instead of staying open later. He also opened up later, so one shift with one person was enough for the day unless there were many pick-ups. The thing was that he hadn't heard from either one of them, and Liam had been cagey that morning while Stiles had called the Hale house to talk to Peter, who had stayed the night since Derek was out of town for work. A case in the state's upper area had Derek on site since it had to do with other packs fighting. He was due back later that day, but the pack had been restless, so Peter had gone over to remind them that just because Derek was out of town, they didn't mean that they could tear the house down.

"Hey," the woman said as she approached the counter after looking at a few items on the shelf in the women's health area. She was a Shifter; he could smell the change under her skin.

"Hello," Stiles said.

"I need help finding a tea, please."

"Sure, what did you need it to?"

"I'm having severe..." she trailed off like she was afraid of grossing him out.

"Cramps? Bloating? Flow?" Stiles asked.

"All of the above."

"I have a tea for that. Now, do you have any allergies?"

"No, I don't."

"Good. Now I have three different teas. There is a sampler of each in a set. There are instructions for each one, and then you can see which one works best and which one doesn't. The paper inside tells you all that you need to know about which one does better. Sometimes it's all three for different things. Call if you have any questions or email. I check it every day, no matter what."

"Thanks." The woman was still blushing even after she had already paid and was turning to leave.

Stiles grabbed his book and sat down in the chair to get lost in the written word again. His lunch was dropped off when he asked. He had gone to breakfast at the diner and had paid for lunch and given them the time to drop it off. Stiles was happy with his salad.

The time ticking away until he could leave took forever, even with the occasional customer and his book. He was pretty happy with it all, really, even if time went slow as fuck when he worked alone. Stiles snagged his cup of tea and settled into his comfortable chair at the side of the place. He was sick of being at the front counter when no one was coming in. He had his Kindle now, and he was still bored as hell. The story was fucking good, but he was just...antsy.

It was the Winter Solstice. Which wasn't that big of a deal, not outside of the small ritual that Stiles needed to do at the Nemeton with Derek at midnight but other than that, it was just a normal day. He was ready for the ritual. The hallucinogen that Derek needed to drink was ready, and the words to the spell were well known to Stiles as it was done at every single solstice. It was time for Derek to commune with the Nemeton to get a feel for the land. Stiles was interested in knowing what it was going to feel like. He had felt something slightly off for a while with the Nemeton, but before everything, he hadn't known what the Nemeton was scared of. Now he knew, and it was all gone.

Stiles stood up and walked over the shelves. He set about moving everything around into a new pattern. Everything was on the same shelf, but he decided to move things according to the main ingredient. The customers were used to looking for things when Stiles was bored with how the shop was laid out.

"Let's go, loser," Cora yelled a while later.

Stiles turned to look at her. He looked at the clock above the door and found that it was exactly five. Stiles sent up a thankful prayer to the Nemeton that time had passed quicker. He finished up the shelf he was messing with and grabbed his tea and Kindle. He drank down the tea while going through the short closing process. He would count the drawer in the morning while waiting for the tea to brew. It was a good routine that Stiles was good at. It made for easier closing. The money rarely ever fully left the drawer until Monday morning when the bank run was done. pack ran the place, and it wasn't like any of them would actually steal any money.

"And where pray tell are we going?" Stiles asked as he locked the front door and waved Cora toward the shop's back so they could leave through the back door. Stiles stopped cold in his tracks since Roscoe was gone. His Jeep wasn't where it was supposed to be. Everything needed for the ritual was in there.

"Peter has your Jeep," Cora said as she walked toward her car.

Stiles hadn't heard anyone come and take Roscoe. He frowned as he looked at Cora.

"Oh, my God. Just call him if you don't believe me. He knew that that stuff you needed was in there. Just...get in the fucking car, Stilinski," Cora said. She sounded put out as hell, but Stiles really didn't care.

Stiles dialed Peter and just glared at Cora, who huffed and dropped down into the car like the dramatic wolf that she was.

"Your Jeep is fine, Stiles. Just go with Cora."

"What the hell is going on? Is there something wrong?" Stiles asked.

"No, there is nothing wrong. We just needed Roscoe for something, is all. Adam drove her just fine, and she had no more scratches on her than she started out with. Now, we are hungry so go with Cora so we can eat."

Stiles glared at his phone when Peter hung up on him. He walked toward Cora's car and started to text Adam. He wasn't happy with his Jeep being taken from him.

"Oh, my God!" Cora huffed when Stiles finally buckled up, and she peeled out of the parking lot.

Stiles ignored Cora's huffing the entire way to the restaurant. He wasn't that caring about where they went. He just wanted to know what was up and then head to the Nemeton. It would explain why he felt like he would go crazy all afternoon if there was something wrong.

"I'm going to kill them," Cora said as she parked the car.

Stiles looked around where they were, and it was just their normal pack restaurant when they wanted something a little more upscale than the diners in town. He looked down at his clothes, and he was glad that he was dressed up a little. He was still in plaid, but he was at least clean and was wearing slacks instead of jeans. Roscoe was in the parking lot, and Stiles could see mud on the tires that hadn't been there earlier in the day. Whatever they were doing, it was because Roscoe could be cleaned easier. Stiles looked at Cora, who was going inside without him, so he walked over to Roscoe to check her out. He sighed and looked at the restaurant. He wasn't in the mood for this. He really wasn't. He didn't know what was going on with him, but he wanted to be alone to get his head clear before the ritual that evening.

"You know we don't bite," Peter said.

"I know that. I've felt off all day, and Cora being the asshole and you stealing the Jeep. I just...I don't want to be on tonight. I just want to go and clear my head. I just want to get this shit over with and go to bed."

"Come on, sweetheart, this isn't anything big like you think that it is. I promise. It's just a good meal. I promise." Peter wrapped an arm around Stiles' shoulder and rugged him along.

Stiles allowed Peter to pull him inside.

"I told you," Adam said from where he was sitting at the far side of the table in the meeting room they had taken over. It was the one used for business meetings with one giant round table and then sideboards for food. "I would have been the better option."

"But then you guys would come back smelling of sex."

"Yes, but one doesn't send a blunt instrument to do what a surgical one needs to do." Adam pulled Stiles right into his lap as Peter pushed him over to him.

Stiles realized that it was just the Hales with him and Adam. Malia was over at the one area, pouring a drink of some kind. Spencer was sitting beside Derek, close like they used to be. Cora was a little distance away with enough space for Malia and Peter between her and Spencer. Then there was Adam on the other side of Derek with a chair for Stiles. He was quite happy where he was, though. He was more than happy to just be sitting in Adam's lap.

"What's going on?" Stiles asked.

Adam hummed and rubbed his hand up and down Stiles' thigh. "Why are you shaking?"

"I've been feeling weird all afternoon."

"He rearranged everything in the shop," Cora said.

"Fucking hell," Derek said. He stood up and walked over to Stiles. He tipped his head back and cupped the side of his face. "Yeah, the Nemeton is fucking giddy for tonight, and it's not noticing that it's making him all antsy. This happened the first time after we did the ritual the first time. I ended up having to take him on a run for three hours before the ritual to get him calm enough. Peter."

"Yeah, I'll make sure everything is good. You and Adam can run him around for a while beforehand. I promise it will all be ready. Me and Spencer promise."

"And us?" Malia asked.

"You guys will make sure that no one gets close, just like every other time."

"Sure thing," Cora said.

"Good. Now Stiles, what do you want to eat?" Peter asked.

Stiles wasn't done looking at Derek. Seeing the worry in his eyes. The worry and the love. Not the love that he had seen for years but something deeper and more profound. "I'm okay, Sourwolf. I just need to run."

"And we will after we eat."

Stiles nodded his head and turned his face to bury it in Adam's neck. "Order for me."

"Sure thing," Adam said.

Stiles closed his eyes and enjoyed the feeling of being in Adam's lap. He wasn't sure that he would be able to stay there while they ate, but he would be there until he had to go elsewhere. The sounds of the Hales all talking with Adam made him feel like he was back at the Hale house with the close family around. The nights when it was just them in the beginning. The days were harder yet easier in many ways.

The smell of fried chicken and fries had Stiles grinning into Adam's neck. Easy food that Stiles could eat where he was. He opened his eyes to see that it was a massive plate of it. It seemed that Adam was eating the same thing. There was ketchup for the fries, honey mustard and barbecue sauces for the chicken. It was a good looking bit of food. Stiles reached out and snagged a fry and ate it with a smile on his face. He looked at Derek to see that he was eating more than normal, which was good; both he and Stiles were going to go through a lot of energy just for the ritual. That didn't include them running around the Preserver before that.

Stiles snagged chicken next. He was going to stuff himself so full that he might throw up, and it was going to be good.

* * *

The Nemeton was awash with energy as Stiles walked up to it. He was still naked from the run and saw no reason to put on clothes. Adam had even stripped off his shirt and undershirt at some point. Peter was standing guard of the space, and Cora and Malia were close at hand. Stiles could hear them running a tight perimeter. Spencer was sitting at the base of the Nemeton with a book in hand, and a book light clipped to it. When the Nemeton thrummed with power as Stiles touched it, even Spencer jerked at it.

"Holy hell," Peter said.

"Yeah, this is...Derek, call Boyd and have him get in contact with everyone. This will be rough as hell on the pack bonds. They are all going to feel this. The kids are going to wake up with this."

"We've not had one as rough as this in a long time," Derek said.

"I can guess that. I've never been around for one of these. Nemetons are protected, and rituals like this are shrouded in mystery. Every single pack that has Nemeton does it differently. I would love to know how this started for the Hales."

"I'll tell you later," Peter said.

Adam nodded and stepped up behind Stiles to draw his hand away. "How are you feeling?"

"Better now that I am here." Stiles could feel the power of the Nemeton around him. He just wanted to keep on feeling that. The tree was excited for the first time in a long time. Stiles had to wonder how good Deaton really was. How he would have been a force for good if he had actually done anything that he was supposed to. If he had actually followed what was a true balance, not the weird fucking balance that he and his sister thought was what magic wanted. Deaton had lost touch with magic long before he had tried to take the Nemeton.

"That's good. Then let's get this started." Adam turned Stiles around to have him face Derek.

Derek and Stiles were both naked; they had to be for this to work. They would have to hide nothing. Stiles stepped up to Derek and laid his hand over his heart.

"You are the heart of the pack, so must you be the heart of the land." The ritual was made up by Stiles as the ones that Talia had done were long gone in the fire, but it was the intent more than anything with Stiles' magic. What he wanted, happened.

Peter handed over the potion before Stiles could even reach out for it. Derek had trouble letting go, or he wouldn't even need to take it, but Derek didn't like making himself feel powerless, even if this didn't do that. To touch his emotions the way that he needed, he needed help. Stiles wrapped his fingers around the vial and popped the lid off of it. Peter caught it with a practiced swipe of his hand. Normally, they wouldn't all be there like this, but Stiles understood that the Hales needed that connection again. If the Nemeton so wished, it could bind itself to all of the Hales instead of just one. Stiles' protection of the Nemeton was only if Derek was killed; for now, it would stay in the Hales' protection.

Despite how Talia was talked into cutting down the Nemeton to fill Deaton's whims of being powerful and extending his life in the wrong way, the Nemeton trusted Talia's children, brother, and niece. The Nemeton trusted Stiles above all others, though. He had been connecting with it for years and never knew it. It was the reason why he liked running in the Preserve instead of the parks and streets of Beacon Hills. Stiles was more than happy to be someone that the Nemeton trusted.

"It's not working," Derek said.

"I know. I don't understand." Stiles closed his eyes and made sure that he didn't lose his grip on the potion. There wasn't the thrum of magic and the push of will from the Nemeton. Stiles wasn't sure what was going on. He had felt that the Nemeton was happy. He just couldn't figure out why the hell it wasn't pushing for the next part. There was an empty hole. Stiles tried to touch it, but he was pushed back. It wasn't for him. That hole wasn't for him. "We are missing something."

"What?" Derek asked.

"I have no clue." Stiles tried to dig deeper, but the Nemeton kept on pushing him back. Then the hole was filled, magic washed over Stiles, and it took a few seconds for him to realize that it was Adam. Stiles opened his eyes and looked to the side to see that Adam had stepped into the circle that was drawn around the Nemeton. Stiles cocked his head to the side as the Nemeton pushed at him to give Derek the potion.

"Stiles?" Derek asked.

"I don't know. I'll figure it out later unless you need me to do it now?" Stiles asked.

"No." Derek held out his hand and took the vial, and downed it in one go.

Stiles looked at the Hale family that he could see. They had all moved around the circle to make room for Adam. He wasn't sure what was going on, but he would roll with it. He snagged the vial as Derek went to drop it. The Nemeton touched Derek's mind, his will lowered enough that he wasn't so uptight that he didn't allow it inside of him. As soon as the magic took over, Stiles pulled away from Derek to allow him to be with the Nemeton on his own. Stiles looked at Adam to see that his eyes were closed. His magic softly thrummed over the area, unlike Stiles' magic that always felt like chaos. Stiles wasn't sure what was going on, but he was happy about the fact that something wasn't so fucked up that this wasn't going to happen.

"Stiles," Derek said. He sounded wrecked in a way that Stiles had never heard before.

Stiles turned to Derek and nearly broke their little circle to walk to him to comfort him. Derek was the one that did that, though. He stepped over to Stiles, the circle not breaking but staying steady. Derek cupped the sides of Stiles' face, and his eyes opened up, flaring red in the darkness around them.

All Shifters had a little bit of magic inside of them. It wasn't anything that they could tap into, but it was what healed them; it was what allowed them to run around in animal form. Magic was a part of their world in ways that were still strange even to those who had made a study of magic.

Derek's magic had always felt good to Stiles, the little kernel of it that was locked tight inside of him. It was the calm in the center of a storm when Stiles was upset. Now though, it was blazing hot in a way that Stiles had never felt before. He wasn't sure what was going on.

"Derek, what's wrong?" Stiles asked.

Derek didn't answer, but he did crash his lips into Stiles' and poured out the magic inside him. Stiles tried to fight away from it, but someone was behind him, holding him in place. Stiles' magic was calm, but he was freaked out. It wasn't doing what he wanted. He tried to last out, but hands gripped his arms, holding him in place as Derek kissed him.

It took a few minutes for Stiles to realize that it wasn't a kiss. It was a way to pass things between them. He wasn't sure what the hell was going on, but he submitted to it. The power of the Nemeton wrapped around him next, encasing him in something as the person behind let him go, and Derek stepped back. His eyes were still red, but it wasn't the same red as normal Alpha eyes. There was something else behind it. It was the Nemeton using Derek to do something to Stiles. Stiles wasn't sure what was going on, but the magic felt good on him.

Stiles wasn't sure how long this lasted, his body not under his own control, his magic subdued in a way that he never wanted to feel again. He wanted to never, ever feel this helpless again.

When it was finally over, he slumped to the ground, his body weak. Adam was there, scooping up him to settle him into his lap. Derek was there as well, calling Stiles' name to get him to respond. He tried to get control of his body, but he was still so weak. This was worse than the time that Derek had made him promise to never do that again after he had nearly lost all control over his magic after a fight.

Stiles turned his face into Adam's body, wanting the light above to go away. Stiles stopped and looked again. That wasn't just some random light; that was the sun, not nearly all the way up yet but close enough. He had been trapped like that for hours.

"Derek?" Stiles asked.

"It's fine. You are fine," Derek said.

"I've got you, Stiles," Adam said.

"Stiles?" Noah called out.

Stiles looked at his father, who was outside of the circle. It was up and tight, and Stiles wasn't able to break it. He had nothing left to do so. He wasn't sure what had gone on, but he didn't like that his father looked at him like that.

"Dad," Stiles called out.

"Take him," Adam said before he gently transferred Stiles into Derek's arms before heading over to the circle and breaking it. It was easy as what was needed was the intent, but Adam didn't have enough magic for that.

Noah rushed at Stiles, touching him all over like he wasn't sure that he was really there.

"What happened?" Malia asked.

Stiles looked at where Malia, Cora, and Spencer were sitting close to where he was. Peter was behind them, standing up and protecting them.

"I don't know," Stiles said.

"It said nothing?" Spencer asked.

"It didn't need to," Derek said.

"What?" Stiles asked. He looked at Derek again. He felt like he had after he had been dosed with Kanima venom, only able to move his head and his mouth. He knew it wasn't that though, he was just so tired and so magically wiped. He had been using too much.

Derek moved Stiles back into Adam's arms. Stiles started to feel better again. He felt like his magic was slowly leaching back into him at a faster rate than it had been. There was something else there as well. Something pushing at Stiles' mind, but he was too tired.

"Sleep," Adam said.

"Need to..." Stiles couldn't get the words out. He was so tired.

"I already took care of the circle in all the ways that it needs; the Nemeton has done the rest. Just sleep, Stiles. We will talk when you wake up."

Stiles did as Adam bade him do, and he passed out.

* * *

Stiles knew where he was when his eyes opened up. It wasn't even that he could see his bedroom, but there was a deep bone knowledge of where he was. He rolled to his side and stretched. His body felt better than it had before. He felt like he could do anything. Looking around, he found that he was alone. He could hear soft talking below and knew the voices and the heartbeats that were all down there. He stood up, finding that he was dressed in sleep clothes. He didn't mind that Adam had dressed him. After all of the sex, they had been getting up to, Adam willingly bottoming the first time with Stiles getting the lube spell right back in November on the first try. Stiles wasn't sure what the hell had gone on the night before. The thoughts about it rushed back, and he snagged a hoodie and slipped it on. He felt a little cold like his magic hadn't fully come back yet.

Adam was at the stove with what looked like a huge casserole being pulled out. Stiles looked at the time to see that it was just past noon. He had slept for a good six hours, it seemed.

"Hey," Stiles said.

All of the eyes in the room turned to look at him. Derek looked fine, but Noah looked worried.

"How do you feel?" Peter asked.

"Good. I feel good. Better than I did when I passed out. I'm not all the way back yet, but soon, I will be. So...who is going to tell me what happened last night?"

"I would say nothing good, but that's a lie," Derek said.

Stiles raised an eyebrow at that.

"So the Nemeton was finally back to full power, and with a strong Alpha paired with it, it was able to undo the last of the shit that Deaton had done to everyone in the area," Derek said.

"I called Noah as Derek had a stream of consciousness that he needed to be there for. A list of people that Deaton had spelled to do or not do something. So he needed to hear it all, or at least as much as he could. He was already patrolling, just in case, something happened. He got there. Cora was already recording it all from when Derek started to talk, and it wasn't his voice. The Nemeton wouldn't answer our questions, though. No, it was just using Derek to tell us stuff while you were trapped in that godforsaken spell trap."

"Spell trap?" Stiles looked from Peter to Adam.

"When Deaton cursed you, he laid a trap, and the Nemeton was breaking it down. It wasn't able to even feel the curses that Deaton had laid all around until it was fully free. Which is why it took this long for it to happen. It was a weird little spell that even I would have had trouble seeing, and I'm good at seeing spells." Adam walked over to Stiles, but he didn't touch. He stood in front of him and smiled. He tipped his head to the side to look at Derek, who looked really uncomfortable before looking away.

"What did Deaton do to me?"

"Trapped away, your ability to feel your Mate like other Shifters do. He did it years before you met Derek. When Scott started to hang out at the veterinarian clinic. He did it, we assume, the second time you went there. Your father said you used to follow Scott there to play with the animals. So it wouldn't be all that hard to see him doing it then. We have to assume that he didn't consider that not feeling the Mate pull would make you mistake the pull to a good Alpha as the same. Or that the Alpha would think the same thing. You talked about feeling a pull to me when I was on campus at Yale. Yet you never did anything about it. You've felt nothing to me since then, not like that. I assume on a trip home, Deaton realized that you had met your Mate and tried to make sure that you wouldn't feel a pull to them."

"Why? Why me? What is so fucking special about me?" Stiles asked.

"You are special because of the ties that you have. To the Hales, the strongest pack on this side of the country, and to the Gajos, the strongest and oldest Hunter group is still on the good side. Your ties to the Nemeton. We think that Deaton was trying to break that part. The pull you have to the Nemeton. Your mother didn't have magic, not like the rest of the world sees it, but we found traces of her all over the Nemeton. She was the gateway to you taking over the Nemeton fully."

Stiles tried to think around all of that. He looked at Adam and then at Derek, before looking at Peter and then his father. None of this made any sense to him. He wasn't sure what the hell was going on.

Then he felt it, the calm and steady presence at the back of his mind. He had felt it for years but never anything too strong. Just when he needed help. "The Nemeton."

"Yes. Even I can feel it in you at the moment. It will take back off," Adam said.

"When?"

"When it's sure that you aren't going to freak out. Right now, it's dulling the Mate pull so that you don't freak out even more. Calm down, and I bet it will start to pull away from that."

"You are sure it's you?"

"Stiles, I've known it since I first met you. But the thing is that Mates are good matches. Yes, you met Derek first when you got close to the age of majority, so I never thought a thing about it. I felt the pull to you again on the Yale campus, but I pushed it away. I was looking for something else, and then it was gone. I didn't even know you were at Yale at the time. Your aunt hadn't mentioned it. Everything is strange right now but just let go."

Stiles nodded his head and did as Adam told him to do. He let go. He pushed away his feelings and worked through them as he did. It was good. He felt...stable in a way that he hadn't in a long time. He needed to make sure that everything was going to work right before he did any high magic. He wasn't exactly sure what the hell was going on with the rest of the town, but he was finding his own at this moment. He opened up that part of him that was feeling something for the first time. The place that Derek had lived and Stiles had shut down as the pain of losing him had almost been too much. He wasn't sure if he would ever open that again, but now he was. He felt a little bit of something there, a link to Adam that had never noticed before. It was as old as hell. It was a soft kind of love too. The kind that a friend had for each other, which given Stiles' age the first time that they met, Stiles understood that. He wrapped his magic around that link and pushed into it. It wasn't love, not yet, not the kind of love that a Mate bond needed, but it was a good foundation for it.

There was too much pain and years of thinking about what love was for Stiles to just latch onto Adam and not look back.

"There you are," Adam said.

"Yeah, there I am, and there you are," Stiles said. He felt the tears starting, so he threw his arms around Adam and let him hold on tightly. Adam held him close, and Stiles cried and released all of the emotions at finding that his life had been fucked with for years. He had chosen Derek, mistaking him as someone that he loved, but he still chose him. He wouldn't change those years, though. He wanted that closeness with Derek, even if it was the wrong closeness. He wasn't one who wanted to throw away the past because it was hard; that would have thrown away many good things. Derek and Stiles were friends now; they still touched more than most people probably should, but as long as Adam didn't care, Stiles didn't.

There was a lot of growing and changing that needed to be done. Stiles and Adam were closer than Stiles would have thought, but it was all good. It was good, and it was happy, and it was all going to be okay. He just had to trust in himself and those around him.

Some of those people were ones that he never thought he would have around him, but Stiles was happy. For the first time in a very, very long time. Stiles was happy. His life was fucked up, and things were wrong on so many levels, but he was happy. He could stay happy, as well.

"Hungry?" Derek asked a few minutes later.

"Yeah, I am. I'm actually starved." Stiles wiped his eyes with his hand and then laughed as his father handed over a dishtowel. Stiles wiped his eyes, and when he was sure that he was done with the tears, he blew his nose on it. It went into the washing room area before Stiles headed back into the kitchen. Everyone was seated around the island, so Stiles sat down beside Adam. Derek was on his other side with a kind smile on his face.

"I'm glad you are better. You feel good to my wolf. He's happy you are happy."

"I'm...lighter than I have been in a long time. So Deaton did a good job at fucking with things when it came to what he did to me. He'll face more charges, won't he?" Stiles asked.

"Yes. Doing that kind of damage to someone. I'm sure that the council will not be happy," Peter said.

"Good. I don't want him to not suffer for what he did. And the others?"

"I'm working with the FBI on that already. He messed with a lot of people who might have figured out what he was doing. The Nemeton said it would cleanse them like it did you, safely since it can do that. It's going to take time. Some might not want it if they have married. If so, the Nemeton said that it might be able to dull that part of them but unlock the rest of what Deaton did. It's going to take time."

"We have all the time in the world," Stiles said.

Adam smiled at Stiles and nodded his head. He reached out and cupped the side of Stiles' face, rubbing a thumb right under his eye. He smiled, and it was like the whole world brightened just a little bit.

Yeah, Stiles thought he could do this for the rest of his life.

# The End

**Author's Note:**

> I write fanfiction for fun. It's a hobby and a stress relief. I refuse to stress over my writing. What you see is what you get. Errors, plot holes, and all. 
> 
> Thank you for reading my story! I will be responding less to comments so please don't take it to heart. I see all comments and love them but most will get just a "Thanks!". 
> 
> Check my profile for other ways to engage with me in social settings.


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